When Donald Trump this week called for the impeachment of a sitting federal judge, the Republican broke new ground: It was the first time a president had ever publicly demanded the impeachment of a jurist because the judge had issued a ruling the White House didn’t like.
It was also part of a broader offensive. The Washington Post reported this week, “The White House pushed forward with delegitimizing the independent federal judiciary by attacking judges who rule against the administration.” That, in and of itself, was an extraordinary sentence, generally unseen in healthy and stable democracies.
Just as importantly, the Post’s assessment was accurate. The president and much of his team have led a scorched-earth campaign of late, targeting individual members of the federal judiciary — and in some cases, their relatives — in response to rulings that Trump disagreed with. Whether the White House is trying to intimidate the courts, undermine public confidence in judges, or both, Americans are witnessing an offensive against the one branch of government standing in the way of the president’s radical ambitions.
And his hyper-partisan attorney general has apparently decided to join the pile-on. The Hill reported:
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the district judge who ordered the Trump administration to return deportation flights over the weekend has “no right” to be asking questions about the specifics. “Our lawyers are working on this, we will answer appropriately,” Bondi said Wednesday on Fox News. “But what I will tell you is, this judge has no right to ask those questions.”
She did not appear to be kidding.
Pam Bondi says a judge has no right to ask the Trump administration questions about their no due process rendition flights
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-03-19T20:27:08.436Z
In the same on-air appearance, Bondi called out three specific district court judges — by name — before telling viewers, “Look what Donald Trump has accomplished in the short time he’s been in office. It’s remarkable. They can’t stand it. They can’t handle it. He is saving our country. We are going to protect Americans. We are going to make America prosperous again and safe again.”
If this rhetoric were coming from the White House press office, that wouldn’t be especially notable. If it were coming from a spokesperson for Trump’s political action committee, that would be routine. If it came from the president’s social media feed, no one would be surprised.
But as things stand, Pam Bondi is supposed to be the nation’s chief law enforcement official, not a partisan cheerleader. It’s a distinction the Florida Republican appears to not understand.
Indeed, watching the attorney general on Fox, it was hard not to notice the familiarity of the circumstances. Looking back over the last several weeks, Bondi was on Fox News on Feb. 6 — the day after she was sworn in. She was also on Fox News on Feb. 21, Feb. 22 and Feb. 26.
She also appeared on Fox News on March 3. The next day she tried a change of pace — and appeared on Fox Business. She returned to Fox Business again on March 14, followed by another Fox News appearance on March 17, followed by another Fox News appearance two days later.
In between the Fox appearances, Bondi also sat down for an interview with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at a Conservative Pollical Action Conference event, where she peddled strange and conspiratorial ideas about New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ case, lied about crime rates in New York, gushed about her close relationship with Trump, mocked Hunter Biden, downplayed the significance of Trump’s alleged felonies in the classified documents scandal, and claimed she issued a series of executive orders — which is impossible because attorneys general can’t issue executive orders.
If you’re looking for a related list of then-Attorney General Merrick Garland touting talking points from the Biden White House on a news outlet associated with Democratic politics, you’re going to be looking for a very long time. Of course, the problem extends well beyond Fox appearances. During remarks last week at Main Justice, Bondi declared that Trump is “the greatest president in the history of our country,” adding that she believes she works “at the directive of Donald Trump.” In recent decades, the Justice Department has acted with a degree of independence from the West Wing. Bondi seems to be removing the firewall, brick by brick. In fact, during one of her many recent Fox appearances, the attorney general said that she believes she has a responsibility to “root out” Justice Department officials who disapprove of Trump’s agenda. During his tenure as attorney general, Garland went to extraordinary lengths to avoid appearing partisan or political in any way, often to the frustration of Democratic lawmakers and the party’s base. Garland had seen what had transpired during Trump’s first term, and by all accounts, he was determined to restore integrity to his office. The idea that he would have taken any of the steps Bondi has taken is plainly absurd. I don’t imagine there’s much of a public appetite for an attorney general’s office infused with partisan politics, but that’s precisely what Bondi is delivering. 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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