New Trump scandal shows the depth of his assault on American democracy
New revelations suggesting that the Trump administration abused Justice Department powers to target his political enemies underscore just how far the ex-President went to destroy cherished principles of American republican government.
They show that the true extent of assaults on democracy by Donald Trump are still coming to light and are probably even now not fully known.
But this is not just a drama about the alleged misbehavior of a former President. Taken together with the Republican Party’s refusal to hold Trump — who remains the GOP’s dominant figure — to account for the Capitol insurrection and its nationwide efforts to restrict voting, the new allegations also indicate that the freedoms and core values that have underpinned American life for two-and-a-half centuries remain in almost unprecedented peril.
In some of the most chilling exposés yet of Trump’s autocratic tendencies, The New York Times late Thursday unveiled a secret scheme by prosecutors against members of Congress conducting presidential oversight.
In pursuit of leaks of classified information about contacts between Trump associates and Russia, the Justice Department subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, their staff and even their families, including a minor. In a sinister twist to the story, prosecutors also secured a gag order against Apple, preventing it from informing customers their metadata had been seized.
The story sent shockwaves through Washington and lawmakers are now scrambling to understand the scope of what looks like one of the gravest scandals of an former administration steeped in political corruption. If the new drama is at it seems, it would validate fears of those who argued that Trump — or his staff — used the Justice Department as a personal political enforcement mechanism rather than the guarantor of the rule of law. It would also add fuel to arguments of those who warned that a second term for Trump would have further endangered the survival of American democracy. [Continue reading…]