University of Michigan Law School Professor Barbara McQuade attacked President Donald Trump in an editorial Thursday for targeting law enforcement as part of his mass firings.
Trump is reportedly looking to cut as many as 5,000 FBI agents who worked on Jan. 6 cases. At the same time, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a memo to acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll listing "terminations" of top-level FBI officials.
These terminations and the potential agent firings "send a terrible message," McQuade wrote for Bloomberg, and are "degrading the rule of law."
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She cited the list of Jan. 6 defendants who were granted full pardons or clemency, saying that Trump was giving "vigilantes" a pass for "taking the law into their own hands as long as they act in service to the leader."
Then firing the law enforcement officers who investigated such cases "erode[s] respect for the law and those who enforce it," she added. It suggests that FBI agents did something wrong in prosecuting those who broke the law, she wrote.
She pointed out that on Wednesday, Bove also sent FBI employees a memo claiming they wouldn't be fired if they "simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner." He claimed the only people who should be worried are those who "acted with corrupt or partisan intent" and were part of "weaponizing the FBI."
McQuade said the action has a "chilling effect" on all law enforcement agencies. Investigators are assigned to act with the law in mind, not with politics in mind. She noted that scaring them away from going after the wealthy, powerful, or those with political connections because they might be fired will put those acting ethically in the difficult position of following the law or following political orders.
The federal work system has safeguards in place to protect career employees from political decisions that can change every four years with a new president, she recalled.
"The so-called deep state is not a rogue operation thwarting a president from carrying out his mandate. It is a group of professionals upholding the law from abuses of power," McQuade wrote.
McQuade listed all the crimes FBI agents investigate and warned that fewer crimes would be caught with fewer agents. Even if Trump intends to hire other FBI agents, recruiting, background checks, and training can take many months. In the meantime, the country is left vulnerable, she wrote.
The larger concern, she said, is that culling the FBI hurts public safety, a similar argument made by former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi.
These actions gut everything the FBI stands for, she closed.
