The independence of the Department of Justice has long been a hallmark of American democracy.
The independence of the Department of Justice has long been a hallmark of American democracy. In contrast to despotic and dictatorial regimes around the world, the U.S. insulates from political influence prosecutors who possess the immense power to arrest, charge and potentially imprison.
We know of what we speak: One of us was suspended as a state attorney in Florida by Gov. Ron DeSantis; the other was dismissed as a U.S. attorney by the George W. Bush administration. Many have described our removals as blatantly political acts.
Thursday’s indictment of John Bolton, following the charges brought against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, highlights the danger of destroying that longstanding guardrail. Situated within a pattern of political prosecution, this latest act fundamentally blurs the line between criminality and constitutionally protected political dissent. Trump has blatantly and publicly seized control of the Justice Department for his political and personal agendas.
Bolton is an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump who previously served as his national security adviser. They have been entangled in a feud since Bolton left the first Trump administration in 2019. One of us previously explained how the execution of a search warrant of Bolton’s home on Aug. 22 should be a wake-up call for every American: using law enforcement to target political opposition was a new front for authoritarianism.
The president, however, has faced no legal repercussions for his politicization of the justice system, which has emboldened him further. Last month, he ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute three of his political enemies: Comey, James, and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Erik Siebert, a career prosecutor whom Trump nominated as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, resigned after pressure from the White House to bring charges against James and Comey. (The president claimed he fired Siebert.) Trump installed Lindsey Halligan — one of his former personal attorneys, who had no prosecutorial experience — to make sure the charges were brought.
Bolton’s indictment is not the same prosecutorial theater as the indictments against Comey and James. Halligan personally presented and signed the latter two indictments, which is highly unusual for the U.
