Editorial written by New York Daily News Editorial Board.
President Donald Trump claims that he wants to end the politicization and weaponization of the Department of Justice, or so we thought. But Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, once Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer, is doing exactly that in sending a memo to the Southern District of New York ordering the corruption prosecution of Mayor Eric Adams to be suspended so Adams can help them carry out their immigration policies.
It is terribly wrong to twist a prosecution for partisan gain, which is what Trump and DOJ are doing.
Bove cites Trump’s Jan. 20 Executive Order 14147, entitled Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government as he puts into writing such weaponization, directing Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon to temporarily stop the case against Adams for political reasons.
Bove says that “We are particularly concerned about the impact of the prosecution on Mayor Adams’ ability to support critical, ongoing federal efforts ‘to protect the American people from the disastrous effects of unlawful mass migration and resettlement.’ ”
Bove is describing a White House political goal — not to mention one that threatens the whole of the American economy and our collective civil liberties — as a rationale for pumping the brakes on a wholly unrelated public corruption investigation that he acknowledges had enough merit to be brought.
It’s almost a tell when Bove notes, in a footnote, that Adams had asserted he was not being offered dismissal in exchange for assistance on immigration enforcement; the lawyer doth protest too much.
That is pure weaponization of the federal government, done on behalf of a president who is hell-bent on taking that concept to its natural conclusion. Trump has talked much about how he wants to use the DOJ as a personal force to pursue real and perceived political enemies and grievances, from the people in Congress and the DOJ and the FBI who investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection to electoral rivals to unfriendly media organizations and nonprofits. The use of the justice apparatus as a cudgel also runs the other way: a decision not to prosecute can be as much a politicized misuse as a decision to move forward. Leaving the decision hanging in the air is nothing short of a threat.
And Trump and Bove are not granting a free pass to Adams, just a pause in the prosecution, as the memo says that the case is to be reviewed after this November’s mayoral election, letting them perhaps keep Adams on the hook. That’s even more politicization and even more weaponization.
Under this novel theory of law enforcement, can a prosecution ever be brought against an elected official? It takes time to build a case, and elections take place every two or four or six years. If alleged corruption stems from official action, but a prosecution can’t be brought as elections near, then when exactly can an elected official be held accountable? We don’t really buy that this is an actual concern of Bove’s as opposed to a convenient way to let Adams know that, while the ax is no longer hanging directly above his head, it’s well within reach. The DOJ promises to be watching.
