Trump Is Working Hard to Destroy Our Justice System

The stated mission of the Department of Justice (DOJ) is to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights.

The stated values of the DOJ include independence and impartiality and following the facts and law wherever they may lead, without prejudice or improper influence.

These are, however, alien concepts to President Trump. Revenge, retaliation and retribution are his idea of justice.

In the past year Trump has trashed DOJ’s mission and values by appointing puppets to head DOJ and the FBI and by grossly misusing and abusing his office to punish, harass and investigate his political opponents and perceived enemies.

Let’s keep in mind that Trump is a convicted felon as found by a jury of his peers, was found by another jury civilly liable for sexual abuse and was found by a judge to have orchestrated massive business fraud.

He had major indictments pending against him in 2024 for interfering with the 2020 presidential election and for improperly possessing classified documents. (The cases ended when Trump was elected president.) As Special Counsel Jack Smith testified in Congress, they had put together powerful cases that established Trump had “engaged in criminal activity.” President Trump called Smith “a deranged animal” and signaled the Attorney General that she should act against Smith.

This is not exactly the kind of person you would want in charge of law enforcement, let alone with absolute power to dispense punishments based on his whims.

But that is what has happened, because the Supreme Court gave immunity to presidents for “official acts,” including absolute immunity to personally run DOJ and the FBI.

As a result, an unaccountable Trump has used the DOJ to go after his political opponents and perceived enemies with a vengeance, regardless of the merits.

Trump is using ICE as his personal, national secret police force. ICE hides who they are with masks. They have no name tags. They are essentially unaccountable. They are improperly going after individuals repeatedly because of the color of their skin. They are grabbing U.S. citizens without any grounds and are using gestapo-like tactics not seen in this country. For the first time in our country, “papers please” is not an unusual request.

When Renee Nicole Good was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent, the Justice Department quickly and improperly announced there would be no investigation. Incredibly, they have instead opened an investigation into her partner.

Trump’s DOJ has indicted former FBI Director James Comey and New York State Attorney General Letitia James and investigated Senator Adam Schiff.

Trump has demanded – and the FBI has complied – the investigation of six Democratic members of Congress for appearing in an ad that truthfully advised military personnel that it is illegal to comply with an illegal order. Trump falsely accused them of “seditious behavior punishable by death.”

Further, Trump’s DOJ reportedly is investigating Democratic Governor Tim Walz and other high ranking Minnesota Democratic officials about whether they interfered with or obstructed ICE: an example of clear political criminal investigations.

Finally, after months of unsuccessfully pressuring Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell to lower interest rates, Trump’s puppets at DOJ opened a criminal investigation into Powell to punish him. This led to a bipartisan backlash.

Just last week, according to published reports, Trump “criticized a group of U.S. attorneys at a White House event last week, calling them weak and complaining they weren’t moving fast enough to prosecute his favored targets, according to people familiar with the exchange.”

Despite his rapid overstepping of his authority, Trump has been remarkably unsuccessful in his efforts to investigate, indict and prosecute his political opponents and perceived enemies. Unfortunately, however, Trump’s repeated meritless efforts have resulted in significant harassment and legal costs.

A saving grace here has been the American people rising to the occasion and fighting back by protesting peacefully all over the country. At the governmental level, the saving grace has been the rulings of the courageous lower courts (as opposed to the Supreme Court, which, to date, has largely been a Trump enabler.)

A Democracy Forward analysis found that there have been more than 600 lawsuits against Trump and his administration since he took office in 2025. The administration has lost more than 70 percent of the time. Less than 5 percent of these 600 cases have reached the Supreme Court.

Polls are now consistently showing that Trump and his agenda are failing.

The American people are not about to allow Trump to steal our democracy or destroy the foundational principle of justice without fear or favor.

A justice system that serves one man is not entitled to the term “justice.” It is nothing more than a Trump tool of intimidation, harassment and punishment.

In the end, Americans will reject it.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. It is appearing on a Friday this week due to the Microsoft outage on January 22. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.