When Trump turns the Justice Department into his own political weapon, no American remains safe
Among the Founding Fathers’ chief goals was to do away with a government where the king was above the law and had absolute power over the lives of his subjects. In our system, the President, like every other citizen, is meant to be subject to the law. The Founding Fathers were explicit about that intention when they debated the shape the new government they were creating would take. And that quintessentially American view that no man is above the law has been the case up until the presidency of Donald Trump.
The rule-of-law approach to government means not only that a President must himself be accountable, but also that he cannot be permitted to create special rules that he can use to benefit his friends or punish his enemies. Trump’s most recent efforts to manipulate the criminal justice system in this regard are like a four-star fire alarm that should summon the entire country, not just half of it, to put out the fire. This is not a partisan matter – whether a President is a Democrat, a Republican or affiliated with any other ideology, he or she cannot be permitted to turn the criminal justice system into a political weapon.
Our system is predicated on the use of standards that apply equally to everyone – people are prosecuted based on what they did, not who they are. No, the system isn’t perfect. It is administered by imperfect humans, which means mistakes happen and injustices can occur. But the goal of the system, its intention, is to apply the rules equally to everyone. [Continue reading…]