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Trump's tactics are bending the criminal justice system to his agenda
Trump’s tactics are bending the criminal justice system to his agenda
Trump and his team have mounted a direct assault on all three pillars of the justice system: Judges, prosecutors and the legal profession.
August 6, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDTToday at 6:00 a.m. EDT
10 min
President Donald Trump on the roof of the White House on Tuesday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
By Naftali Bendavid
President Donald Trump is bending the U.S. justice system to his personal purposes in a way that is unprecedented in American history, prompting significant questions about how a system built on independence will fare in the months and years to come.
Trump’s team has mounted a direct assault on all three pillars of the justice system, attacking judges whose rulings he dislikes, firing prosecutors for doing their jobs and taking revenge on law firms for having clients or partners he considers hostile.
The president has also broken one of the chief taboos of an independent justice system by using it to attack his political enemies. He personally ordered an investigation of his predecessor and onetime rival, former president Joe Biden. And now Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered a grand jury investigation into allegations that Obama administration officials broke the law while investigating Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election — assertions that have been investigated and disproved.
Bruce Fein, who served in the Justice Department under Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, said Trump is trying to make the department a political arm of the White House, sending lawyers into court to make implausible arguments on issues such as deportation. … “It’s totally, completely unprecedented,” Fein said. “The whole effort is to turn the department from being a professional organization into one where you are told that unless you are an echo chamber of what Trump wants you to say, you will get fired.”
{snip}
CORRECTION
A previous version of this article incorrectly said Donald Trump sought to overturn the 2022 election. It was the 2020 election.
Trump and his team have mounted a direct assault on all three pillars of the justice system: Judges, prosecutors and the legal profession.
August 6, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDTToday at 6:00 a.m. EDT
10 min
President Donald Trump on the roof of the White House on Tuesday. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
By Naftali Bendavid
President Donald Trump is bending the U.S. justice system to his personal purposes in a way that is unprecedented in American history, prompting significant questions about how a system built on independence will fare in the months and years to come.
Trump’s team has mounted a direct assault on all three pillars of the justice system, attacking judges whose rulings he dislikes, firing prosecutors for doing their jobs and taking revenge on law firms for having clients or partners he considers hostile.
The president has also broken one of the chief taboos of an independent justice system by using it to attack his political enemies. He personally ordered an investigation of his predecessor and onetime rival, former president Joe Biden. And now Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered a grand jury investigation into allegations that Obama administration officials broke the law while investigating Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election — assertions that have been investigated and disproved.
Bruce Fein, who served in the Justice Department under Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, said Trump is trying to make the department a political arm of the White House, sending lawyers into court to make implausible arguments on issues such as deportation. … “It’s totally, completely unprecedented,” Fein said. “The whole effort is to turn the department from being a professional organization into one where you are told that unless you are an echo chamber of what Trump wants you to say, you will get fired.”
{snip}
CORRECTION
A previous version of this article incorrectly said Donald Trump sought to overturn the 2022 election. It was the 2020 election.