Donald Trump's latest move just put a nightmare scenario within reach, according to an ex-prosecutor.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote an essay in which she addressed Trump's latest efforts to indict his perceived political enemies. Specifically, she noted how the president signaled his willingness to replace prosecutors who don't go along with his goals.
"If you’ve been paying attention, it’s not exactly news that this is Donald Trump’s revenge presidency. It’s not even news that Donald Trump is trying to use the criminal justice system to harm people he considers to be his enemies. Investigations launched against Letitia James, Adam Schiff, Jim Comey, and others fully substantiate that, despite the under oath promises by Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel that there would be no enemy lists when they stood for confirmation," Vance wrote. "But now it’s clear that there are. And Trump will install a U.S. Attorney in Virginia who will guarantee that. If she deviates from the plan because she is principled, she, too, will likely be replaced with someone more compliant. Perhaps the administration will want to let go of this messy situation, let a lengthy re-investigation forestall additional controversy, rather than seek a bad indictment and have a grand jury reject it, or get a marginal indictment and face dismissal from a judge or a failure to convict by a trial jury. But Trump seems extremely focused on getting revenge."
According to Vance, "It feels like it should be unnecessary to state the obvious here, that there’s not much of a case if the only way to get it prosecuted is by firing an experienced prosecutor to get an inexperienced one (or no prosecutor at all) to bring it. So let’s be clear about what Trump wants. He wants to turn us into a banana republic where the ability to prosecute people becomes a political tool in the hands of the president. That means he wants to exercise the ultimate power to put down any opposition to his rule."
The ex-prosecutor then added, "It’s precisely what I’ve been discussing with you on television and in writing since the start of Trump’s first administration. It has always been a risk, now it’s on the edge of becoming a reality. Any president who would behave this way is a president in name only; in truth, they are well down the road to becoming a dictator. This is a moment as serious, if not more, as the one the country faced during Watergate."