Recently, The White House Terminated multiple U.S. attorneys within the Justice Department, which in itself can be seen as executive aggrandizement considering The White House is typically not involved in the terminations, as they usually come from the Department of Justice itself. While The White House did not respond, it’s clear that at least two court-appointed U.S. attorneys were sent a letter stating, “At the direction of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you of your position as U.S. Attorney is terminated, effective immediately.” It is important to keep in mind that the two known attorneys were previously appointed by Joe Biden, and one was a federal prosecutor who had previously worked on January 6 cases surrounding the riot at The Capital. At the end of the day, democracy is centered around the peoples trust in political institutions, therefore since Trump is an example of a political leader that can act autonomously and can make decisions at their own personal digression, it is hard for people to put Trump in his irrational decisions that do not follow the typical protocol or act only in his favor. Trump exemplified this behavior when he issued a mass pardon for January 6th rioters, proceeded to name and advocate for said Capital rioters as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and fired federal prosecutors who had originally been hired to work on Capital cases. His illogical decisions fueled by his own disposition leave political culture threatened, as he continues to build his calvary of those who will make decisions in his favor and slowly undermine democracy. Donald Trump had no right terminating those U.S. Attorneys, but even more so, he exhibited forbearance by issuing a pardon for a group of individuals who clearly committed a crime. It is interesting because if a situation like the Capital Riots took place as a form of rebellion against Donald Trump, he would most definitely not have the same reaction or perform the same courtesies that exhibit forbearance and bend the rules in such a way that rewards fugitives. When thinking about what strengthens democracy, a facet of that is leaders being able to take action against threats from extremist parties. Trump’s pardons and irrational termination of DOJ members does the exact opposite, his tactical judgement ends up getting clouded by his personal views and beliefs. An even smaller example of this is how he recently changed “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America.” As Donald Trump continues to make decisions that polarize the country, democratic norms become threatened and a lack of trust is displayed between the citizens of the US and the political institutions that are supposed to be used to both govern them, and support them. The idea of democratic erosion itself is that democracy is being undermined overtime, sometimes at a slow rate to the point that it can be hard to know when the boundary between democracy and non-democracy has been crossed. Therefore, these little decisions that are made by the Executive brand and President, all add up, and all matter.
DOJ Terminations
By: Nina Cassinello
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This post is fascinating because I knew little about the DOJ firings. After reading this blog post, I caught up on some events. I cannot say I was surprised to read that President Trump has used his authority to rid the federal government of people who oppose him. Something in particular that stood out to me was you mentioning how the President fired two known attorneys appointed by Joe Biden. While I do not believe that people who oppose the new administration should lose their livelihoods based on political beliefs, politically appointed positions typically turn over when a new administration takes over. While furthering my understanding of this, I learned that the President has attacked rank-and-file career prosecutors, serving them with termination letters from the White House Personnel Office, whose intended purpose is to vet, nominate, and recruit politicians who can further the agenda of the current President’s agenda, not to serve termination letters. Career prosecutors have civil service protections that aim to shield them from termination for political reasons.
This executive overreach concerns me because the White House has disregarded government decision-making norms. That typically goes through the agency, at least for rank-and-file employees. The DOJ said that its decisions come from President Trump’s mission to end weaponization of government. But using the DOJ as an example, President Trump is using his executive powers to do just that for people who have attacked him in the past and do not currently support his policies. Given all that is happening in American politics today, how can we protect civil servants who disagree with President Trump? Do we, as the public, take a stand or wait for judicial/ legislative officials to do it?