Trump has out-Nixoned Nixon: firing FBI director James Comey after asking him to "let go" of an inquiry into former national security adviser Michael Flynn's interactions with Russian officials; repeatedly calling the Russian inquiry a politically motivated "witch-hunt"; urging the firing of the FBI's No 2 official because of alleged Democratic allegiances; launching an assault on special counsel Robert Mueller's own investigation; and appointing a lapdog attorney general, William Barr, to do whatever the president wishes.
Barr has out-Nixoned Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell: whitewashing Mueller's conclusions; defending Trump's phone call to the president of Ukraine seeking dirt on Joe Biden; defending Trump during the House impeachment; refusing to enforce congressional subpoenas; opening an "intake process" for dirt Rudy Giuliani dredges up on Trump's political opponents; and continuing to respond to Trump's every whim including, this week, suggesting Stone should get a milder sentence than the one career prosecutors recommended.
In November, Stone was convicted of obstructing Congress and seeking to intimidate witnesses. This week, prosecutors recommended Stone be sentenced to between seven and nine years in prison. Applying federal sentencing guidelines, they reasoned that Stone deserved it because he had threatened to harm a witness to whom he sent the message "prepare to die" and his conduct had resulted in "substantial interference in the administration of justice."
"This is a horrible and very unfair situation," Trump tweeted, early the next morning. "The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!"
Hours later, Barr decided to seek a more lenient sentence.
"The department finds the recommendation extreme and excessive and disproportionate to Stone's offenses," a spokesman said.
In response, the career prosecutors filed notices in court of their intention to leave the case. One wrote that he was resigning as an assistant US attorney and leaving government altogether.
The incident caused such an uproar that on Thursday Barr was forced to declare in a TV interview that he wouldn't be "bullied" and that Trump's tweets "make it impossible for me to do my job."
But anyone who has watched Barr repeatedly roll over for Trump saw this as a minimal face-saving gesture. As if to underscore Barr's subordinate role, on Friday Trump tweeted that he has the "legal right" to meddle in cases handled by the DOJ.
Trump's view is that he has ultimate power an "absolute right" to control the justice department.
That's as wrongheaded now as it was when Nixon held the same view. If a president can punish enemies and reward friends through the administration of justice, there can be no justice. Justice requires impartial and equal treatment under the law. Partiality or inequality in deciding whom to prosecute and how to punish invites tyranny.
A half-century ago, I witnessed the near dissolution of justice under Nixon and the enablers then drawn to him, such as Roger Stone. I served in the justice department when it and Congress resolved that what had occurred would never happen again.
But what occurred under Nixon is happening again. Trump neither understands nor cares about justice. He cares about nothing but himself. Like Nixon, he has usurped the independence of the Department of Justice for his own ends.
Unlike Nixon, Trump won't resign. He has too many enablers not just a shameful attorney general but also shameless congressional Republicans who place a lower priority on justice than on satisfying the most vindictive and paranoid occupant of the White House since Richard Milhous Nixon.
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