The events of the past week in Virginia mark a dark new stage in President Trump’s effort to turn federal law enforcement into a personal tool of oppression and vengeance. He is undermining a core promise of the American justice system: the fair and equal enforcement of the law.
On Thursday evening his handpicked federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, obtained an indictment of the former F.B.I. director James Comey on highly dubious charges. The indictment came just four days after Mr. Trump installed her on an interim basis and just days before the statute of limitations on the charges would have expired.
He chose Ms. Halligan — his former personal attorney, who had no prosecutorial experience — for her willingness to be compliant. The president forced out her predecessor Erik Siebert after he refused to file charges in the Comey case and another one. Mr. Siebert’s staff spent months investigating before deciding there were no grounds for indictment. Mr. Trump responded with a social media post pronouncing Mr. Comey “guilty as hell” and vowed that Ms. Halligan would see to their prosecution in a way that her “woke” predecessor refused to do.
Long before this week, Mr. Trump crossed some of the clearest and most important lines in how justice is administered. He ran for office promising to prosecute his enemies and appointed loyalists who have ordered investigations of people the president does not like. On their own, those moves deserved to be the biggest law-enforcement scandal of the past 50 years. Yet they turned out to be just a start. He has now gone beyond ordering investigations to dictating their outcome.
He has removed any pretense that the law is blind. As despots have done for centuries, he is persecuting people he considers his enemies, with little justification other than raw political power. It is reminiscent of the old royal notion “L’état, c’est moi”: I am the state.
This country’s founders recognized precisely this danger. In the Declaration of Independence, they excoriated the British king for prosecuting Americans for “pretended offenses.” Over time, their descendants created a legal system that became the envy of the world.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post The Comey Indictment Plunges the Country Into a Grave New Period appeared first on New York Times.
