Justice is out of control
President Trump’s rampage of retribution took a disturbing new turn with his vitriolic blasts at the prosecutors and judge handling the case of his longtime friend and informal adviser Roger Stone. A president’s berating of the government’s principals in a criminal case the week before sentencing in U.S. District Court would be unseemly even if it were ignored by everyone who is sworn to uphold justice.
But Trump’s Tuesdaymorning outburst became all the more chilling when the top levels of the U.S. Justice Department intervened within hours to withdraw the prosecutors’ recommendation of seven to nine years in prison for Stone. The four prosecutors promptly withdrew from the case, one resigning from the department entirely in protest.
As if there were any doubt that political meddling was in play, Trump laid it to rest Wednesday when he congratulated Attorney General William Barr for “taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought.” Stone had been convicted in November of obstructing a congressional inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election, lying to investigators under oath and trying tampering with a witness who was ready to expose his lies.
Trump also tweeted an attack on the U.S. District Court judge, Amy Berman Jackson, who is scheduled to sentence Stone on Feb. 20.
“Is this the Judge that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure?” Trump wrote.
In reality, Jackson delivered the 7½year sentence but was not involved in the incarceration conditions for Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman who had been convicted of five counts of tax fraud, one count of failure to file a report of foreign bank and financial accounts and two counts of bank fraud.
The president who was acquitted of abuse of power by the U.S. Senate last week has shown no sense of contrition or restraint.
So much for the naive view of Sen. Susan Collins, RMaine, and other Republican senators who voted for acquittal on the assumption that Trump would be chastened and more careful after the grueling impeachment process.
Asked Wednesday what lessons he might have learned, Trump replied that “the Democrats are crooked. They got a lot of crooked things going. That they’re vicious. That they shouldn’t have brought impeachment.”
The message of Trump’s words — and Barr’s actions — was unmistakable: Allies of the president who commit crimes can count on highlevel intervention on their behalf. Foes of the president, or those in the justice system who uphold their obligation to equal treatment under the law, had better watch out.
“Nine years in jail, it’s a disgrace and in the meantime (former FBI Director James) Comey walks around making book deals,” Trump said in the White House Wednesday. “Where’s (exFBI Director James) Comey? What’s happening to (former FBI Deputy Director) Andrew McCabe? … (former FBI officials) Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, what’s happening to them?”
A better question: What’s happening to the rule of law in this nation when an administration tilts the justice system to benefit its friends and punish its foes?
“This affects the rule of law and respect for it,” tweeted Eric Holder, the first attorney general for President Barack Obama.
The power move on Stone’s behalf comes on the heels of Friday’s firing of two witnesses who testified to Congress about the Ukraine scandal: Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council and Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
This is a president on the warpath, without shame and without boundaries.