When Attorney General Pam Bondi sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity two weeks ago, the Republican lawyer repeated a familiar talking point. “Donald Trump is in office, and the weaponization has ended,” she boasted. The Floridian repeated the line on Fox Business a few days later.
During Bondi’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, she again emphasized the line, telling the panel’s members that one of her principal priorities is “to end the weaponization of justice” — a goal the attorney general claimed she’d achieved.
There was, of course, a problem with the premise of Bondi’s boasts: One cannot end something that never started. It is an accepted fact in Republican circles that the federal government in general, and the Justice Department in specific, was weaponized during the Biden era, but there’s never been any evidence to bolster the GOP’s many conspiracy theories.
But as important as that detail remains, there’s an equally problematic element to Bondi’s incessant boasts: The idea that government weaponization came to a sudden and remarkable end upon Trump’s return to power is obviously preposterous. The New York Times reported:
From the moment Donald J. Trump began his campaign to return to the White House, he has expressed a clear desire to seek vengeance against his perceived enemies. In the last few weeks, the pressure campaign has intensified with two of his foes — James Comey and Letitia James — now indicted. Back in power, Mr. Trump has weaponized the Justice Department to his own ends, critics say, in a more direct manner than any president since the Nixon era.
Of course, it’s not just “critics” who’ve made the case. It’s also reality.
This isn’t an especially close call.
In recent weeks, and in response to a corrupt presidential directive, Trump’s Justice Department secured a highly dubious criminal indictment against one of the president’s favorite targets, and then secured another highly dubious criminal indictment against one of the president’s other favorite targets.
But that’s just the start. Team Trump is also investigating Fani Willis, the Georgia district attorney who tried to hold the president accountable for his post-2020-election conduct. And Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California. And former CIA Director John Brennan (a paid contributor to MSNBC). And former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton. And even former President Joe Biden.
And did I mention that, in recent months, a Democratic mayor, a Democratic U.S. House member, the staffer of a different Democratic U.S. House member, a sitting judge and a labor leader have all been criminally charged, detained or taken into custody by Trump administration officials? Because all of that happened, too. In case that weren’t quite enough, the Times’ report noted that Trump’s Justice Department, which is currently led by Trump’s former personal lawyers, “has fired dozens of career prosecutors, many of whom had worked on cases involving Mr. Trump. And the president and his allies have targeted or pushed out several U.S. attorneys as he seeks quick movement on cases involving a number of his political adversaries.” If Bondi believes she and the president have somehow “ended” people in power using the government as a political weapon, I have some very bad news for the attorney general. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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