"Donald Trump's voracious desire for retribution has quickly evolved into a regular and predictable system. In the year since his election his rage and whims have assumed the form of policies in the same way that Stalin's purges could be called policies. Figures within the federal system of justice who do not do his bidding are summarily fired and replaced by loyalists."
"Opponents have been designated under Presidential National Security Memorandum No 7 as Antifa: anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-capitalist, and threatened with prosecution as a terrorist. Meanwhile, many aligned with him escape justice, whether through the hand of the Department of Justice or the presidential pardon power. Now, he demands compensation for having been prosecuted to the tune of $230m from the Department of Justice (DoJ) budget."
"Each of the cases involving prosecution of Trump's enemies and, on the other hand, the leniency extended to his allies has its own peculiarities of outrage. But whatever their unique and arbitrary perversities, they are expressions of what has emerged as a technique. These episodes are not isolated or coincidental. Trump's purge of DoJ prosecutors and FBI agents, accompanied by his installment of flunkies in senior positions, started in a rush, quickly assumed a pattern, but has now been molded into a regime."
Donald Trump's desire for retribution has become a regular, predictable system that turns personal rage into policy. Federal justice officials who do not comply are summarily fired and replaced by loyalists. Political opponents face indictment, trial, and designations under national security guidance, while many allies avoid accountability through Justice Department actions or presidential pardons. He has sought $230 million from the DOJ budget as compensation for prosecution. Multiple prosecutions and selective leniency reflect an emerging technique of institutional retribution. The Department of Justice and the FBI have been remade into political agencies to carry out those objectives. A complaint filed on 10 September by three former senior FBI officials accuses Kash Patel and Pam Bondi of illegal terminations in a campaign of retribution.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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