Donald Trump, who practically built his entire 2024 presidential campaign on the spurious grievance that Joe Biden has weaponized the Justice Department against him and his allies, is weaponizing his own Justice Department against his enemies and in service of his friends.
We reintroduce you to one of the most odious creatures from the Trump swamp, Steve Bannon. Bannon, the professional right-wing populist firebrand who ran Trump’s 2016 campaign and was Trump’s first chief strategist as president, was charged with collecting millions of dollars for a nonprofit called We Build the Wall. While he promised that none of the money they donated would be used to pay the salary of the organization’s president, Brian Kolfage, he secretly was funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to prosecutors.
Manhattan federal prosecutors built a strong case against Bannon, Kolfage and two others before the end of Trump’s first term — which the president wiped away with a pardon on his final night in office. While Bannon escaped, the non-pardoned trio went to federal prison for years.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Tish James then picked it up, in 2022 indicting Bannon for fundraising fraud. They too had a strong case — but the prosecution was undercut when Trump’s Justice Department stopped its cooperation. That no doubt put a thumb on the scales of justice.
And so Tuesday came a Pyrrhic win in Manhattan court: Bannon pleaded guilty to one felony count, getting a three-year conditional discharge, meaning he’ll face no punishment if he doesn’t reoffend. He could have served years in prison like his buddies.
And so, Bannon’s lawyer crowed, even as Bragg insisted that the deal achieved “our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud.”
Bannon can’t serve as an officer or director in charities with assets in New York. He’s on the naughty list, and that’ll have to do for now.
Now a nation that watches as the Trump Justice Department runs roughshod over rules and norms and laws and court rulings simultaneously, under AG Pam Bondi, targets former DOJ officials who prosecuted the Jan. 6 rioters. This comes after Trump pardoned the criminals.
Making their charges disappear wasn’t enough; now he is intent, in the best old Soviet way, of purging the federal government of anyone who might be seen as responsible for enforcing the rule of law. Bondi calls this squad of lawless reactionaries the “Weaponization Working Group,” the latest example of Team Trump’s talent for accusing his enemies of doing exactly what he is doing more obnoxiously and aggressively than anyone.
FBI agents seen as sympathetic to pursuing Jan. 6 crimes — which is to say, those who followed their solemn obligation to enforce the law without fear or favor — are also reportedly being rooted out, as are those involved in Jack Smith’s expansive and razor-sharp investigation into Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election.
A federal government that’s supposed to follow the law is bending itself to the whims of its chief executive. And the so-called conservatives who pitched a fit about a 2016 meeting between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch don’t bother to bat an eye at abuses that make that look like a poppy seed next to a boulder.