What is going on at the American Department of Justice is deeply troubling. Ruth Marcus writes:
It is becoming alarmingly difficult to keep track of all the reasons to worry about what’s happening at Justice under Barr — and increasingly clear that what we know that is worrisome may be the tip of the iceberg. And it is becoming absolutely imperative that Barr and other senior department officials testify about their activities.
Last Friday saw the botched massacre of Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The episode was telling for those, myself included, who once had higher hopes for Barr’s second stewardship of the department.
Jay Clayton, the intended nominee, might be a fine chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and an excellent corporate lawyer. He has no business overseeing the Southern District. Clayton’s “management experience and expertise in financial regulation give him an ideal background . . . and he will be a worthy successor to the many historic figures who have held that post,” Barr proclaimed in his Friday night announcement. This is dangerous hackery, insulting to those who have served in that post and, more important, to the department.
Barr, who calls himself a conservative, was touted as a guardrail against Trump's wild impulses. However,
for those who thought Barr would be competent, consider: He ousted Berman, a registered Republican and Trump donor, and wound up with Audrey Strauss, a registered Democrat who has contributed to Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the job. Well played.
It's abundantly clear that, in Trumpworld, there is one law for the rich and well connected. There is another law for everyone else. And the well connected are incompetent.
Image: sltrib.com
2 comments:
One of Trump's greatest accomplishments is the subverting of America's vaunted system of checks and balances. During Nixon's final year, Congressional Republicans stood for the nation over their party's president. That sort of integrity is long extinct in America today. Trump is merely the culmination of the failure of democracy in that country. It began with legislative capture and moved on to regulatory capture, the hallmarks of a corporate state. Trump has had great success transforming the various federal courts into Republican courts that break with judicial tradition without qualm, much less regard for their duty to the country. A morally bankrupt president who appoints a readily corrupted cabinet, especially his hyper-compliant attorney general, completes the coup against American democracy.
I agree, Mound. There are those who argue that Trump is an aberration. In truth, he is the culmination of a long campaign to establish corporate governance throughout the American Republic. He and his Vichy collaborators have been extraordinarily successful.
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