A former federal prosecutor sent shockwaves on Wednesday after he issued a chilling warning about President Donald Trump's Department of Justice.
Glenn Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., discussed the recent actions of Trump's DOJ on a new episode of "The Legal Breakdown" with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen. Kirschner said the recent resignation of six career officials from the DOJ's civil rights division over its investigation of the widow of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother who was killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross last week, was a sign that the DOJ has been fully weaponized against average Americans.
"What I'm seeing ... it feels like, at least in connection with the fatal shooting by an ICE officer of an American citizen and then an attempt to open a criminal investigation of the victim's spouse, the DOJ has now firmly been turned against the American people," Kirschner said. "I don't say that lightly."
Experts have warned that Trump views the Department of Justice as his personal law firm, and some of his actions seem to support that theory. For instance, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was dispatched to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate of convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, who was then transferred from a maximum security prison to a minimum security facility.
Trump has also privately raged at Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the release of the Epstein files. The president also ambushed some of his U.S. Attorneys during a recent photo shoot and called them "weak" because they haven't prosecuted his political enemies fast enough.
The administration's leap to defend Ross following Good's death, even before a formal investigation had been initiated, seemed to also be intended to send a message to protesters, Kirschner argued.
"If you speak up, if you use a whistle, if you draw any attention to the illegal conduct going on in your streets, you're going to be next," Kirschner said. "And if it's not with a shot in the face, it's going to be a criminal investigation based on absolutely no predication, no evidence indicating you committed any crime."