'Legal schizophrenia': DOJ faces 'Herculean task' of convicting Trump while protecting presidency

The federal indictment of former President Donald Trump has put the Justice Department between a rock and a hard place, reported POLITICO, as the agency tries to balance the requirement of prosecuting a defendant with longstanding rules meant to protect former presidents from legal harassment.

"In a courthouse in Florida, federal prosecutors are trying to put Donald Trump in jail. But in Washington, D.C., a different wing of the Justice Department is trying to shield him from being forced to testify under oath in a long-running lawsuit," reported Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein. "Welcome to the bizarro-world reality facing Attorney General Merrick Garland, the first DOJ leader balancing the prosecution of a former president with the department’s longstanding mission to protect the presidency itself. DOJ has often taken absolutist positions against efforts to sue current and former presidents for their actions on the job — but never before have they been prosecuting one of those ex-presidents at the same time."

The defense of the president comes from a longstanding policy that direct legal action against presidents are a separation of powers issue that potentially paralyzes the executive branch. Trump is not currently president, but was previously and is likely to be the GOP nominee for president again.

The DOJ has also come to Trump's aid on a number of other occasions, including during the E. Jean Carroll suit. But this is the first time they've had to defend him from themselves.

Former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi said that the DOJ is facing a "Herculean task of trying to put an ethical rope through a needle," and that, "At best, there is an apparent conflict for DOJ, which has to rightly defend constitutional principles to protect the former president and the office he once held, while striving mightily to prosecute him for alleged crimes. This balancing act is legal schizophrenia.”

Trump is charged with Espionage Act violations and obstruction of justice, for concealing highly classified national defense information at his Mar-a-Lago country club in South Florida. He is also under criminal investigation for the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which could lead to further indictments.