Chuck Darwin<p>Trump has been nominating, <br>and the Senate has been confirming, <br>one pliant and obsequious instrument of the president’s pleasure after another. </p><p>This is nowhere more true than in appointments to the Department of Justice. </p><p>To understand Martin’s danger, it is important to understand how the department in which he would serve as a confirmed official has been operating in Trump 2.0.</p><p>At Attorney General <a href="https://c.im/tags/Pam" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Pam</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Bondi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Bondi</span></a>’s swearing-in ceremony, she pledged to <br>“not let [Trump] down” <br>and to “make [him] proud.” </p><p>In her introduction of President Trump before his speech in the Great Hall at the Justice Department,<br> she called Trump<br> “the greatest president in the history of our country” <br>and proclaimed that the department was <br>“so proud to work at [his] directive” <br>and would “never stop fighting for” Trump. </p><p>She has portrayed Justice Department attorneys as the president’s lawyers.</p><p>Bondi signaled fierce loyalty to Trump at her confirmation hearing but nonetheless pledged that,<br> “If confirmed, I will fight every day to restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice <br>and each of its components. </p><p>The partisanship, the weaponization, will be gone. America will have one tier of justice for all.”</p><p>🔥In office Bondi has done precisely the opposite<br>—aggressively so. </p><p>She has engaged in a range of politicizing actions, <br>including dropping the Eric Adams prosecution, <br>withdrawing charges against and pulling back from investigations of other Trump-allied current or former officials, halting prosecution of a Trump family crypto partner, <br>and firing or demoting career attorneys who worked on cases involving the president.</p><p>She established a “Weaponization Working Group” <br>that is going after the president’s perceived enemies <br>and must report on its progress to the White House quarterly. </p><p>(Martin is a member of the group.) </p><p>The weaponization group is implementing the president’s core philosophy: <br>“If they screw you, screw them back ten times as hard.” </p><p>The goal may be to eliminate future weaponization against Trump interests; <br>but the tactics are weaponization on a scale never before imagined.</p><p>At the same time, Bondi, the chief legal officer of the executive branch after Trump, <br>is stewarding the rule of law in a disastrous fashion. </p><p>She has facilitated the elimination of DOJ independence from the White House, <br>despite pledges to the contrary. </p><p>Her lawyers have been unprepared in court and shown courts unprecedented disrespect. </p><p>They have sought to defend the president’s plainly lawless extortionate actions against law firms, <br>among other lawless executive actions.</p><p>Bondi and her lawyers are not restoring confidence and integrity in the department<br>—they are weakening them. </p><p>Bondi had signaled a pro-Trump agenda during her confirmation process, <br>but now we know the scale on which she is using the department to do the president’s political and personal bidding. </p><p>The Senate’s enabling of these actions in confirming Bondi is the proper background to assess Martin’s nomination</p><p> <a href="https://c.im/tags/EdwardMartin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EdwardMartin</span></a></p>