“They’re undoing decades and decades of rights”
How Trump, his DOJ, and SCOTUS are poised to rig the rules of Democracy in favor of the MAGA coalition
Throughout his second term, Donald Trump has turned the Department of Justice into his personal legal team, directing its officials to go after political opponents, rig our systems and institutions in MAGA’s favor, and launch legal strategies meant to overturn decades of precedent.
This week on Gloves Off, I sat down with legal expert and viral YouTuber Leeja Miller to break down how Trump has systematically dismantled the DOJ’s independence and why it should alarm every American who still believes in the rule of law.
In our conversation, Leeja explained that the restrictions governing how the DOJ is supposed to operate stem from the Nixon administration—after Watergate, the country collectively decided that a president using the Justice Department as a personal weapon against his enemies was unacceptable. So, we built guardrails, and the DOJ at least maintained the appearance of impartiality. For decades, attorneys general from both parties understood that the job required maintaining some distance from the White House to preserve the institution’s credibility.
Over the past year, however, the Trump administration has taken a hammer to that credibility. “They’re not even pretending anymore to have an appearance of impartiality or propriety,” Leeja told me.
For example, from covering up the Epstein Files to attacking prominent Democrats, (former) AG Pam Bondi didn’t just fail to maintain distance from Trump, she sprinted to the Oval Office on a regular basis, openly calling her department “Trump’s DOJ” and doing whatever he asked. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t successfully weaponize the rule of law the way Trump needed her to, so she was forced out. Now, the acting AG is Todd Blanche, who served as Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney, proving that loyalty to Trump, apparently, is the only qualification that matters. For more reading on Blanche’s unyielding loyalty to the President, you should read this report from COURIER contributor Nina Burleigh.
What I keep coming back to from our conversation is this: Trump’s goal was always to find lawyers willing to make arguments untethered from law, logic, or reason, and he has spent the past decade assembling exactly that team. The fringe right-wing legal theories, the boundary-pushing executive orders, and the attempted prosecution of political enemies are all stress tests of our institutions, pushed relentlessly until something gives. These tactics were bad in the first Trump administration, but this time around, they’re much, much worse.
While lower courts and the judicial system have been one of the few functioning checks on this administration, Leeja and I also spoke a bit about the U.S. Supreme Court’s trajectory, which has become more openly political and is poised to overturn decades of established rights this term, including the Voting Rights Act and rules around mail-in voting.
Donald Trump’s legal strategy and personal takeover of the DOJ is just one part of his administration’s efforts to rig the rules of our Democracy. Listen to our full conversation for more on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to COURIER’s YouTube channel so you don’t miss what’s coming next.
— Tara
P.S., I’m hosting a Substack Live with Nina Burleigh at 4:15pm ET today (Thursday, April 16th) to talk about the latest in the Epstein Files cover-up. You can tune in and add to your calendar here.