Trump Won His War on the Justice Department

To that end, Trump has transformed the Justice Department into something resembling a personal law firm. Bondi is a longtime ally of Trump dating back to before his presidential campaign. Bove, whom Trump nominated to serve as principal assistant deputy attorney general, worked on Trump’s legal defense teams after Trump’s first term. Todd Blanche, Trump’s nominee to be the permanent deputy attorney general, also worked on his defense team. John Sauer, who represented Trump in the immunity case, is slated to be the next solicitor general.

Bondi has also set up an ironically named “Weaponization Working Group” to investigate the people who prosecuted and investigated Trump. “No one who has acted with a righteous spirit and just intentions has any cause for concern about efforts to root out corruption and weaponization,” she wrote in the memo announcing the move. “On the other hand, the Department of Justice will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behavior, or other forms of misconduct.”

The president and his cronies had help dismantling the Department of Justice. In Trump v. United States last year, Chief Justice John Roberts essentially nullified the department’s traditional independence. Then-Special Counsel Jack Smith had alleged in an indictment that Trump had improperly demanded that Justice Department officials publicly support his false claims of voter fraud. Roberts, in his majority opinion, held that these demands weren’t improper at all.