It turns out that there is actually good news and bad news that comes from the Department Of Justice in the second Donald Trump administration being totally feckless. The good news is that when the President tries to weaponize the DOJ against his political enemies, be they other politicians or a guy who threw a sandwich at an ICE agent, he is unable to get very far. The bad news, of course, is that the Department Of Justice can’t accomplish much of anything, good or otherwise.
Though the DOJ has been a fairly consistent headline throughout Trump’s time in office, whether via Pam Bondi, Jeanine Pirro, or, most recently, Todd Blanche, John Oliver spent the run of last night’s Last Week Tonight going beyond some of the biggest headlines to examine what is going on at the department, day to day. For example, the group of ICE protestors dubbed the Broadview 6 were subject to near-constant misconduct, most egregiously with U.S. attorneys trying to communicate with jurors outside of the courtroom and trying to stack the deck by removing jurors who disagreed with the government’s case.
And while it may sound like the government not being able to prosecute its enemies is a good thing—we may have even suggested as much in this very newswire—the DOJ under Bondi also shut down a ton of cases looking into everything from white-collar crime to nursing home abuse. The civil rights division of the department has also dropped many cases against police departments investigating the violations of people’s rights, while spending its time looking at how conservatives claim to have been discriminated against. Check out the whole segment below.
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