Defending Justice: The Fight Against Politically Motivated Prosecutions
In December, Kaiser PLLC partner Jon Jeffress wrote about the need for President Biden to issue preemptive pardons protecting individuals from politically motivated federal criminal prosecutions. Click here to read the article as published by The Hill. Biden issued a number of such pardons, including to Dr. Anthony Fauci and the members of the January 6th Congressional Committee. Here, Jon follows up on the impending political prosecutions and how those who care about the rule of law might respond.
President Nixon’s Press Secretary, Pat Buchannan, summarized the cause of the Watergate break-in scandal as follows: “Watergate happened when some damn fool came out of the Oval Office and did exactly what the President told him to do.”
Regarding President Trump’s retribution agenda, one might have hoped there wouldn’t be enough “damn fools” in the White House to carry out his shockingly undemocratic and illegal plans. The early returns are in, however, and those hopes are dashed. In just two weeks, the administration has shown utter contempt for the institutional independence of the Department of Justice and other executive agencies, carrying out a purge at the Department of Justice and firing 18 Inspector Generals. Congress has done nothing to stop any of this and will likely confirm Kash Patel, who has expressly endorsed revenge prosecutions, as Director of the FBI.
The prosecutions haven’t happened yet. Based on what is publicly known, no grand jury investigations have been opened regarding political targets of the administration, and no one has been arrested. While the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has written a bizarre letter intimating a prosecution regarding the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its alleged failure to cooperate with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), that is all we have. The question remains: will the Trump Department of Justice pursue federal criminal investigations purely political in nature?
The answer is almost certainly yes. As I wrote back in December, there is no good reason to believe that this administration will, in the treatment of its perceived enemies, draw a hard line at criminal prosecutions. Trump’s first two weeks suggest precisely that. Furthermore, it’s dismayingly clear that Trump believes the politics of unjust prosecutions actually favor him. That is precisely why Biden should have used the preemptive pardon power more broadly than he did.
The defense bar must take an emphatic and unequivocal stand against the coming politically motivated prosecutions. Allowing the justice system to be weaponized for revenge undermines the very foundation of our democracy and—if unchecked—will damage our institutions beyond repair. Our law firm, as with so many others, is committed to avoiding this result and continuing the fight. The stakes could hardly be greater.