Government

'Secret' Memo Fight Shows That Neither Side Respects The Department of Justice

The Justice Department is no longer a tool for law, it's just a tool.

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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty)

I don’t respect the Department of Justice, but I almost never do under a Republican administration. When Democrats are in charge, the DOJ goes out and crusades for… justice. When Republicans are in charge, the DOJ defends torture, declares war on recreational marijuana users, and covers up breasts on statues. Republican “justice” is never for me. This Republican administration has taken it to a new level by installing Jeff Sessions, a “living fossil” from antebellum America, as the Attorney General. But, as I’ve said before, Sessions is just trying to do what John Ashcroft tried to do, adjusted for the fact that open bigotry is more acceptable now than it was in 2001.

Anybody with even a passing interest in civil rights has no reason to respect this Justice Department. However, because Sessions is also fundamentally an authoritarian who believes in the unflinching, unquestionable power of the state, anybody with even a passing interest civil liberties also has no reason to respect this Justice Department.

But what’s neat about this Justice Department is that Republicans have no reason to respect it either. Donald Trump is the most openly hostile president towards his own Justice Department since Richard Nixon. Henry II and Thomas Beckett got along better than Trump and Sessions. And while members of Trump’s party seem to like Sessions better than Trump himself does, Sessions isn’t actually running the DOJ on its most important work, which is investigating Donald Trump.

That job falls to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and Republicans, evidently, hate him because he does not appear to be sufficiently partisan to do their bidding.

That’s what this “secret memo” is, allegedly, all about. House Republicans, led by Devin Nunes — who appears to be a cross between R. M. Renfield in Dracula and Inspector Gadget — have prepared a memo that takes a giant hack at Rosenstein. Depending on who you talk to, it’s either a cherry-picked tall-tale designed to make Rosenstein look bad, or pre-text to fire Rosenstein who has been dutifully protecting Robert Mueller and allowing him to conduct his investigation.

The Justice Department doesn’t think the memo should be released to the public. The House is pondering using a rule that allows them to declassify documents it deems import to matters of public concern (no idea if “their own re-election” qualifies as “important”). Fox News wants somebody fired — and if you don’t think Fox news is an important stakeholder in this fight, then you have not been paying attention to how the Republican party operates for the past 20 years.

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And Donald Trump just wants to be drenched in urine. No, I’m being serious. Leaving the DOJ alone would look mature and presidential and all Donald Trump wants to do is throw a tantrum and wet himself.

Please note, one focus of the hit job on Rosenstein has to do with him authorizing surveillance of Carter Page. Carter Page is a human piss-ant smarter criminals would have buried in the Pine Barrens by now. But the New York Times reports:

A secret, highly contentious Republican memo reveals that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein approved an application to extend surveillance of a former Trump campaign associate shortly after taking office last spring, according to three people familiar with it.

The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent. But the reference to Mr. Rosenstein’s actions in the memo — a much-disputed document that paints the investigation into Russian election meddling as tainted from the start — indicates that Republicans may be moving to seize on his role as they seek to undermine the inquiry.

This “secret memo” fight is the kind of fight that happens when literally nobody respects the role of the Justice Department or believes it is acting in good faith. It is a preview of what happens when the rule of law totally breaks down, and potentially a glimpse into our post-Trump future that will extend after his administration until a Caesar emerges to finally end our failed Republic.

It’s too bad, the concept of a top lawyer that was appointed by the president but ultimately independent of the executive or legislative branch was a really cool one. I hope whatever experiment in self-government that replaces us retains our concept of an “Attorney General” and perfects it. It was a good idea, this office that Trump is irrevocably damaging.

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Secret Memo Hints at a New Republican Target: Rod Rosenstein [New York Times]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.

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