An attorney who represented a January 6 defendant with ties to the Oath Keepers is shocked by President Donald Trump's rapid-fire assault on the civil service and particularly the Justice Department and FBI, reported Politico — and said he is doing far more to weaponize the justice system than anything his political opponents supposedly did.
After facing criminal prosecution, Trump and his allies wasted no time in a mass firing of career prosecutors who worked under special counsel Jack Smith — and are now moving to purge FBI agents involved in Trump and cases as well.
Gene Rossi, who previously worked as a prosecutor, represented the first Oath Keeper to enter the Capitol. While he didn't vote for Trump, he maintains his client deserved the pardon Trump granted as part of his mass clemency for January 6 perpetrators — but is aghast at how he has moved to clean house against perceived enemies in the justice system.
“I have never seen the level of retribution and anger expressed towards career prosecutors and staff who are basically doing their job,” said Rossi. “It is stunning, the level of retribution. What is ironic is that President Trump talked about witch hunts. What we are now experiencing is his answer to the witch hunt, which is much worse.”
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This comes amid a much broader move to completely remake the civil service in Trump's image, with tech billionaire Elon Musk gaining access to the Treasury Department payments system and recommending the dismantling of various independent agencies — all of which, Politico noted, is likely to lead to intense legal challenges that will pare back much of Trump's initial aggressive agenda.
Federal judges, per the report, are "bracing for an onslaught of challenges to the growing list of unprecedented steps taken by a president who seems determined to test the limits of his constitutional authority." Former FBI adviser and attorney Daniel Richman told Politico, “Federal employees around the country are surely feeling Trump’s orders as body blows, as he likely intended. But once the immediate shock at his extraordinary power claims wears off, I doubt they will all be cowed. Rather, they will be the source of litigation that all but the most die-hard Trumpist judges will take seriously.”
