This Nightmare Will End. Look Who's Helping.

As Trump becomes more reckless and impaired, a growing number of judges and aggrieved legal professionals are fighting back

“We’re a country of laws, not men,” reminded Mike Donnelly, former Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court. He was one of two dozen judges who joined a bus tour this week advocating for the rule of law. (Screenshot courtesy of Daniel Miller and the Democracy Rising Collaborative)

If you only pay attention to the corrupt and unhinged behavior of Donald Trump each day, it would be easy to lose all hope.

Consider these examples of his lawlessness and cognitive decline just from the last few days: Calling Iran “the Islamic Republic of Japan” and the Iranians “scum,” refusing to pay E. Jean Carroll the $5 million-plus he owes her for adjudicated rape and defamation, trying to push the Supreme Court to reconsider its birthright citizenship ruling, threatening to withhold federal counterterrorism funds from blue states if they don’t agree to exclusively use paper ballots and verify citizenship at the ballot box.

But it’s not just Trump that makes it dispiriting. It’s also the reckless refusal by the Republicans to admit what we can see with our own eyes: his falling asleep mid-meeting at the NATO summit this week in Turkey and, while awake, humiliating our nation with his increasing inability to get names and other information correct.

How many times will Trump call President Volodymyr Zelensky—who was sitting right next to him—President Putin before the Republicans acknowledge the need to do something?

It’s a trick question: The answer is he could humiliate our once-admired nation endlessly and his sycophants still would display their utter cowardice, their desperation to hold onto power and their abandonment of principle, the Constitution and the truth.

At the risk of excessive repetition, I remind you that both impeachment and the 25th amendment are available mechanisms to deal with a president who is acting criminally and/or unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. But as long as this bunch of anti-American cowards holds onto power, they prove that Trump could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and they would either applaud him or pretend that they knew nothing about it.

But I haven’t sent this missive to your inbox simply to heighten your outrage and increase your blood pressure. Rather, I’d like to spotlight several examples of virtuous men and women who have grasped the urgency of this moment and have lifted their voices and taken action to confront and condemn the horrors they see—refusing to sit idly by while the worst among us try their damnedest to destroy our beloved country. I draw these encouraging examples from the world of justice and the law.

This week a letter was sent to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will be conducting the confirmation hearing of Todd Blanche for U.S. Attorney General. The letter was signed by more than 1,200 former Department of Justice employees who served in 14 Republican and Democratic administrations and collectively possess thousands of years of DOJ experience.

As their letter begins, “Regardless of how we joined the department, every one of us took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, not the occupant of the White House.” That oath, they explain, “compels us to speak out against the nomination of Todd Blanche for Attorney General.”

I could easily share every damning word in their letter—and please do give the two pages a read if you can—but let me present a handful of key excerpts. They begin by noting “the corruption and abuses that have defined the Justice Department” under Blanche, a list that includes “the vindictive prosecutions and investigations of the President’s foes; the deals designed to reward lawbreakers with taxpayer dollars; the erasure of accountability for January 6; the mishandling of the Epstein files; and the denigration of judges and repeated violations of their orders.”

But they focus particularly on Blanche’s “degradation of DOJ’s apolitical career workforce,” from which some 16,000 employees (out of a workforce of over 100,000) have exited, including FBI agents and analysts and more than a quarter of the department’s attorneys. Of these career civil servants, they write:

They’re the ones who keep us safe by prosecuting violent crime, investigating drug trafficking, and countering terrorism and espionage. They keep us prosperous by enforcing antitrust laws and holding financial fraudsters accountable. They protect our fundamental freedoms by upholding civil rights laws, and they keep our elected officials honest by pursuing public corruption.

And why are they gone?

Blanche has fired or overseen the firings of hundreds of these employees—usually without notice, and for improper, unlawful reasons. Some were terminated for having worked on cases the President didn’t like; for being relatives of the President’s foes; for adjudicating immigration cases in accordance with due process; for declining to initiate vindictive prosecutions; or for refusing to lie in court. These terminations violate the very civil service statutes designed to prevent corruption and political purges.

Many more career employees have left on their own…For some, their offices were left rudderless after their managers were pushed out. Others resigned rather than follow illegal or unethical orders, or they left because they feared those orders would come. Many left because leadership abandoned or drastically scaled back their work enforcing civil rights, environmental, or public corruption laws—while offices that enforced tax laws, ensured access to justice, prosecuted drug trafficking, and reduced community violence were eliminated entirely.

These 1,200-plus signatories, including dozens of U.S. attorneys and other senior leaders, describe the consequences of Blanche’s attacks—that “much of the department’s vital work isn’t being done, or isn’t being done as well, leaving communities less safe, Americans’ rights less protected, and our national security more vulnerable.” And they insist that “the culture of fear Blanche has instilled” must be stopped and “respect for career professionals must be returned.”

Their conclusion: “For the sake of the institution where we once proudly served, we urge you to reject Todd Blanche’s nomination.”

We will learn this coming week whether the Senate Judiciary Committee hears their voices and those of all of us who condemn the hateful, unjust agenda of Trump and Blanche, more properly known as Trump’s new Roy Cohn.

This week a collection of 25-30 retired and sitting judges got on a bus to meet everyday citizens in streets, town squares, community centers, donut shops and even a Cracker Barrel. Their purpose: to advocate for the rule of law and its centrality to our democracy.

Patterned after a similar intervention by judges in Poland in 2020, these judges have traveled from Pennsylvania to Ohio and Michigan, ending up in Detroit. Worried about the independence of the courts and the dangers of an increasingly lawless regime made worse by an ill-informed citizenry, they have taken their case to the people, including schoolchildren. Dressed in their flowing black robes, the judges have made quite an impression on unsuspecting passersby.

The week-long tour—organized by Democracy Rising Collaborative and Keep Our Republic—is a reminder that there’s no silver bullet for how we save our democracy. It takes committed people at every level who recognize the necessity of raising awareness and underscoring the foundational values and principles needed to sustain a free society.

They cite these three values in their mission statement: “Fairness matters. Rules must not bend for the powerful. No one is above the law.” Easy enough that even the school kids they meet should get it.

Here’s a clip from Columbus, Ohio (courtesy of the Democracy Rising Collaborative):

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I leave you with the ruling of Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has refused to take seriously Trump’s deadbeat effort to avoid paying writer E. Jean Carroll, even after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal to hear the case. Kaplan is an exemplar of the growing list of federal judges who recognize their duty to the Constitution and the rule of law—and are not willing to be kowtowed by this lawless White House occupant. Kaplan’s six-page order filed Wednesday concludes with this:

In the last analysis, defendant has been stalling this case for years. A jury unanimously concluded that he sexually abused and defamed plaintiff and awarded her damages accordingly. The judgment on that verdict has been upheld on appeal. En banc rehearing has been denied. The Supreme Court has denied certiorari without dissent. It is time for him to do equity’ and pay the judgment.

Unsurprisingly, in order to further drag this out, Trump’s lawyers intend to appeal the judge’s order. But as Kaplan noted, “disbursement of funds would not cause defendant irreparable harm.” And “in the highly unlikely event” that the Supreme Court were to reverse itself and grant Trump’s petition for another hearing, he could file a suit to recover any funds “erroneously disbursed.” (The total funds now amount to $5.8 million, which is a combination of the $5 million jury award plus accumulated interest.)

Ultimately, we can assume that, no matter how cognitively impaired and reckless the convicted felon becomes, he will never become less cruel, cheap or hostile to justice and the rule of law. It will take dedicated judges and every one of us to push back and overcome the tragedy of a man like this (and his enablers) holding our country hostage.

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