""I think crisis is a completely justified word to use," said Bazelon, a Yale Law School graduate and New York Times Magazine staff writer. "What's happening now is just an utter dismantling of all the norms and rules that were enacted after Watergate to try to have some separation between the White House's political aspirations and the Justice Department." Bazelon was on campus Monday for the Francis Biddle Memorial Lecture, titled "Has Independence Ended for the Justice Department?""
"Even before the 2024 election, former federal legal officials were concerned about the potential politicization of the Department of Justice during a second Trump administration. But the recent indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after direct pressure from the president have crossed a red line, said journalist Emily Bazelon."
"The department has for decades been assured prosecutorial independence in the wake of the public and congressional backlash against President Richard Nixon's attempts to use the agency to impede the investigation into the Watergate scandal, she said."
Former federal legal officials feared DOJ politicization ahead of the 2024 election. Recent indictments of James Comey and Letitia James following direct presidential pressure intensified alarm and marked a perceived red line. Post‑Watergate norms and rules were created to ensure a separation between the White House's political aims and the Justice Department's prosecutorial independence. Presidents historically maintained that separation for political reasons. Current actions treat those boundaries differently, prompting concern across the DOJ and the Washington legal community. Courts remain the primary institutional check, but effective judicial restraint has been limited.
Read at Harvard Gazette
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