Trump Corruption Inc., Part 4
See Trump Corruption Inc., Part 1 here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here
Trump’s unprecedented corruption is usually associated with the $4 billion in personal wealth that he and his family extracted from the presidency in just the first year of his second term. 
However, there is another kind of profound corruption being carried out by Trump: his corruption of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the rule of law.
Trump is waging an unprecedented assault on the DOJ’s mission “to uphold the rule of law,” and its stated responsibility to follow “the facts and the law wherever they may lead, without prejudice or improper influence.”
Trump has shown no interest in the facts and the law, and no concern about improper influence.
Instead, he is turning the DOJ and FBI into extensions of his personal fiefdom and using them to conduct his revenge and retribution campaign against his perceived enemies and political opponents.
Trump’s absolute control of the DOJ dates back to a gratuitous, outrageous finding by Chief Justice Roberts in his 2024 opinion in Trump v. United States – which gave presidents criminal immunity for so-called “official acts.”
The Roberts opinion found that “Investigative and prosecutorial decision-making is ‘the special province of the Executive Branch,’” and “the Constitution vests the entirety of the executive power in the President, Art. II, §1.”
Roberts then concluded that a president has “exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials.”
With that, Chief Justice Roberts wiped out a half century of presidential norms in which presidents did not interfere with the DOJ on criminal matters. Following President Nixon’s scandal-ridden efforts in the early 1970s to try to manipulate the DOJ’s actions, this principle had been accepted by presidents of both parties until now.
Trump is not only using his control of the justice system to obsessively pursue the prosecution of his perceived enemies. He also has acted quickly to protect his followers from the impact of the rule of law.
On day one of his second term, Trump granted pardons to some 1,500 convicted criminals and defendants, effectively granting amnesty to the violent mob he inspired to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
At around the same time Trump was freeing convicted criminals, including many who had injured police officers, his DOJ gutted its Public Integrity Section, the DOJ unit responsible for prosecuting public corruption. Trump also fired many inspectors general responsible for combating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement across the government.
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration killed or suspended a number of pending corporate and cryptocurrency enforcement actions, including dismissing an SEC civil enforcement case against Coinbase – while Trump and his sons set a path that would make him and his family billions in the crypto world by the end of 2025. Trump’s DOJ also paused enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Trump has been relentless in going after prosecutions of his perceived enemies. He has relentlessly failed in case after case.
His main early targets were former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Senator Adam Schiff.
Trump, presumably accidentally, posted a message about them to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi on his Truth Social:
“What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia?? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. …. We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!! President DJT.”
Schiff has never been indicted. Comey and James had cases against them thrown out by a judge. Grand juries have twice refused to reindict James – a very rare occurrence. Then there is the infamous, ridiculous indictment of Comey for posting a picture of “86 47” seashells. That theory has already been badly undercut by another federal case, in which Judge Randolph Moss ruled that an “86 47” protest flag was protected by free speech and not a real threat.
And then there was the attempt to indict six members of the House and Senate for an ad in which they urged military members to follow the law by refusing to obey illegal orders. Again, a grand jury refused to indict in another rare occurrence.
For all his bullying and bluster, Trump’s corrupt revenge campaign has been one of incompetence and failure after failure, though these efforts to indict and prosecute are forcing the targeted opponents to spend large amounts on lawyers to defend them even against irresponsible charges.
Trump’s use of the DOJ and Chief Justice Roberts’ disastrous opinion in Trump v. United States to conduct his vicious revenge campaign is one of the greatest abuses of the presidency in its 250-year history. The cowardly silence of Republicans in Congress about Trump’s extraordinary abuses of our justice system makes them participants in the Trump revenge campaign.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
