Attorney General Pam Bondi offered a rosy assessment of the Justice Department's court record during last week's Cabinet meeting at the White House, telling President Donald Trump, "We've had some great wins in the last few days." While the department has successfully fended off attacks on several administration policies, there have been as many (or more) high-profile face-plants from federal lawyers, with dozens of other cases still waiting adjudication. Bondi needs all the help she can get if she hopes to stave off more defeats — but her ironfisted demand for total loyalty to Trump, and the punishments she's doling out to dissenters, doesn't seem to be making her job any easier. Upon taking office in February, Bondi made clear that there was no room for dissent among the Justice Department's lawyers. In a memo issued on her first day, federal lawyers were warned they "are expected to zealously advance, protect, and defend their client's interests" — those being Trump's interests, of course, not the American people's. Bondi has applied her maxim extremely literally, reportedly punishing government lawyers for being insufficiently full-throated in their support of Trump policies, either in court or behind closed doors, as the onetime firewall between the attorney general and White House collapses. This is a preview of Hayes Brown's latest article. Read the full column here. |
