Top senator's sudden softness as Trump rough rides over law puzzles conservative

A conservative lawyer is hammering a judicial leader in the Senate for a puzzling softening toward President Donald Trump's rough ride over the law.

Sen. Chuck Grassley's (IW) allies have long touted him as a leader of judicial oversight. But in an Bloomberg article Friday, reporters Tiana Headley and Jonathan Tamari stressed that he is now drawing vehement criticism from those who believe he has grown "tepid" where Trump is concerned.

And some of the criticism is coming from the right, including conservative attorney and Trump foe Gregg Nunziata.

"After President Donald Trump fired two federal watchdogs in 2020," Headley and Tamari wrote, "Sen. Chuck Grassley defied the leader of his party. The Iowa Republican — who, for over four decades, has cultivated a reputation as someone who challenged Democratic and Republican administrations alike — blocked two Trump nominees for roles at the National Counterterrorism Center and the State Department.

"The (Trump) Administration had failed to give Congress the required advance notice for the terminations. But when Trump returned to office this year with a more aggressive approach and removed inspectors general at 18 federal agencies, Grassley's response was more muted. He sent Trump a letter on January 28 requesting answers, saying, 'This is a matter of public and congressional accountability.' The administration took eight months to respond to it."

The Bloomberg reporters add, "Meanwhile, Grassley, as chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, kept Trump's judicial and US attorney nominees moving through his panel when he could have delayed their progress to exert pressure on the White House."

Nunziata didn't hold back when he discussed Grassley, 92, with Bloomberg Law.

The conservative attorney, who served as Republican chief counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee under President George W. Bush and is now executive director of the Society for the Rule of Law, is an outspoken Trump critic. And he believes that Grassley is going much too easy on him.

Nunziata told Bloomberg, "I have been puzzled and disappointed by his apparent lack of interest in continuing in his own tradition of rigorous oversight."

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) is disappointed with Grassley as well, telling Bloomberg, "He's been one of the (Trump) administration's biggest enablers. The way he's run the Judiciary Committee, is that Trump could do no wrong."