The nomination is really Trump’s loyalty test of Senate Republicans: If they go along, there’s nothing they won’t agree to.
Trump has nominated Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as America’s next attorney general.
This would be laughable were it not so utterly dangerous.
Gaetz as attorney general would all but guarantee that Trump weaponizes the Justice Department against his enemies — past, present, and future.
Ever since Trump was first indicted, Gaetz has been defending him — alleging that the prosecutions of Trump were politically motivated, that Joe Biden was behind them, charging the Biden administration with vindictiveness toward Trump, and asserting that Trump would have every right to engage in similar vengeance toward Trump’s political enemies.
In making these bogus claims, Gaetz has often used identical language to Trump’s wildly partisan and incendiary claims.
I worked in the Justice Department in the years following Richard Nixon’s attempt to use the department to prosecute and intimidate Nixon’s enemies.
To restore faith and trust in the department, President Gerald Ford appointed Edward Levi as attorney general. Before his appointment, Levi had been dean of the University of Chicago Law School and president of the University of Chicago.
One of Levi’s most important accomplishments was to insulate the Department of Justice from political interference by establishing a set of rules that prevented the White House from privately contacting an attorney general or any other Justice Department officials.
How far we’ve fallen.
