The Real Weaponization Of Justice
It is one of the defining ironies of our political moment: an administration that has turned the Department of Justice into an instrument of personal and political vengeance claims to be the victim of “weaponization” by the Biden administration. This height of hypocrisy is designed to project a narrative of persecution. But to anyone paying attention, the projection is clear. The true weaponization of the DOJ is happening inside the executive branch, under the direction of a president who sees law enforcement not as a guardian of justice, but as a tool of retribution.
From the first days of this presidency, the pattern has been unmistakable. Career prosecutors who built their reputations on the impartial pursuit of justice have been driven out or sidelined. U.S. Attorneys who declined to pursue politically motivated cases, or who objected to directives to prioritize mass deportations or the harassment of perceived “enemies,” have been summarily dismissed. In their place, the administration has installed individuals who understand that their job is not to enforce the law, but to enforce the president’s will.
This hollowing out of the Department of Justice marks a profound break with American tradition. Administrations of both parties, particularly since Watergate, have recognized the danger of allowing politics to contaminate justice. Independence was not just a norm, it was a safeguard against authoritarian drift. Attorneys General have always defended the principle that law enforcement must remain above partisan interest. That principle served as a cornerstone of democratic accountability. Now it is being deliberately dismantled.
Evidence From the Trenches
The evidence continues to pile up. In recent months, the DOJ has dismissed dozens of career prosecutors, violating long-standing norms that firings occur only for cause. The Eastern District of Virginia is probably the most egregious example. First, the president publicly scolded Attorney General Pam Bondi for not moving quickly enough to indict former FBI Director James Comey or New York Attorney General Letitia James. Immediately after, Erik Siebert, the U.S. Attorney in the district was pushed out of his job for advising the DOJ that there was not enough evidence to bring a criminal case against Comey or James.
Siebert was replaced by Lindsey Halligan, a Trump loyalist with no prosecutorial experience, who immediately convened grand juries to formally indict both of them while also firing two more senior prosecutors, Maya Song and Michael Ben’Ary, a national security specialist. Ben’Ary warned in a departure letter that leadership seemed “more concerned with punishing the President’s perceived enemies than…protecting our national security.”
In Washington, the Department has fired at least three prosecutors involved with January 6 cases, including supervisory and line attorneys, with little explanation beyond invoking constitutional authority. Over eighteen others have reportedly been fired or demoted. In New York, Acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon resigned after being ordered to drop the corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams, citing ethical concerns. The DOJ, under Acting Deputy Attorney General and former Trump lawyer Emil Bove, later transferred the case to Washington for dismissal, reportedly in order to reward Adams’s cooperation on immigration enforcement.
In the District of Columbia, interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin fired nearly 30 prosecutors who had worked on January 6 cases, dismantled the Capitol siege prosecution unit, froze hiring and promotions, and replaced senior leaders with political confidants. Martin even launched an internal “1512 Project”, an apparent effort to retroactively restructure prosecutions to align with political messaging. A “Weaponization Working Group,” headed by Martin, seeks to codify the notion that DOJ attorneys are the president’s personal legal arm.
The Stakes: National Security, Credibility and the Rule of Law
The consequences go far beyond personnel. The threat to national security is real. While DOJ assets are diverted toward ideological campaigns like mass immigration raids, investigations of journalists and prosecutions intended to intimidate dissenters, the capacity to fight genuine threats, from terrorist plots to transnational crime, atrophies. Law enforcement partners abroad hesitate to share intelligence. Foreign adversaries exploit the spectacle to undercut faith in U.S. institutions.
At home the consequences are also dire. Once the Justice Department becomes a political cudgel, it loses credibility with courts, with Congress, and with the public. We have seen evidence of this in several recent instances, whether it is grand juries refusing to indict protesters arrested by DHS or a Trump-appointed judge calling the administration’s positions “untethered from reality.” In other words, none of this is hypothetical. It is real and happening as we speak.
All this occurs against the backdrop of a president who openly calls for enmity toward his critics and refers to prosecutions as personal payback. This is precisely the kind of politicized justice Americans once associated only with fragile democracies abroad. And the chilling message to career staff is unmistakable: pursue the administration’s enemies and you’ll be promoted. Resist, and you’ll be gone.
For those like myself who have served in government, the loss is both personal and institutional. We came of age in an era when public service was defined by duty to the Constitution (in fact we swore just such an oath), not to any individual. The notion that federal prosecutors could be told which political opponent to target would once have been unthinkable. Today, it is Policy.
The weaponization of justice is not a metaphor. It is a process that is slow, corrosive, and deliberate, by which an independent institution is bent into the service of one man’s grievances. Undoing that damage will take years, perhaps decades to accomplish. Meanwhile, it is unfolding, every day, within the walls of the institution that once stood as America’s legal conscience.
Bruce Berton served as a U.S. diplomat for over three decades, ultimately rising to the senior ranks of the Foreign Service, including two years as Ambassador and Head of Mission at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is a native of the Pacific Northwest and a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University. He is a member of The Steady State.
Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 300 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.