Trump is expanding his dangerous cult of impunity

Other public figures trapped in public corruption probes have also tried to curl Trump’s favor. Bob Menéndez, former American senator in New Jersey, was sentenced to 11 years in prison last month for his role in a foreign bribery scheme. Although Menéndez was a Democrat for a long time, he sang a different melody after the sentence and complained that the Biden Department of Justice had attacked him. “President Trump was right,” he reclaimed. “This process is political and corrupted to the center. I hope that President Trump cleanses the pool Cess and restores the integrity of the system. “

That fiscal power can be used as a sword and a shield. Shortly after assuming the position, Trump appointed Ed Martin, a lawyer who was in Capitol Hill with fuss on January 6, as the United States interim prosecutor for the Columbia district. Martin has spent the last five weeks purging the federal prosecutor’s office of Trump’s perceived enemies and Riding a highly publicized effort Dissoun Trump’s critics and South African billionaire Elon Musk, which exerts a vague but significant influence on the administration.

In a Chamber Audience about the so -called Government Efficiency Department earlier this month, for example, California representative Robert García sharply criticized Musk’s actions and urged their fellow legislators to retreat against them. “What the American public wants is that we bring real weapons to this bar fight,” he said, according to The Washington Post. “This is a real struggle for democracy.” Martin, in turn, sent a letter to Garcia alleging that these metaphorical comments “sounds to some as a threat to Mr. Musk” and urging him to “clarify” his comments. It would be difficult to take Martin’s letter as anything but an attempt to intimidate Democratic legislators.