Frank Figliuzzi hosts The Frank Figliuzzi Show on Lincoln Square. He is an FBI Assistant Director (retired); 25-year veteran Special Agent; and author of the national bestseller, The FBI Way, and Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers. Subscribe to his Substack.
When it comes to four seemingly distinct recent news stories, the sum is greater than the parts. If we connect the dots across recent developments involving the Justice Department and Trump’s new Attorney General Todd Blanche, we see the potential for alarming scenarios.
First, there’s the report that almost 100 of the 1,500 pardoned January 6 defendants have now re-offended and been arrested again. Second, Attorney General Todd Blanche has a new initiative to restore gun rights to felons previously denied those rights. A third concerns Blanche indicating that DOJ is exploring ways to pay cash to people claiming they were victims of DOJ “weaponization” through alternatives. Lastly, all these stories must be viewed through Blanche’s recent refusal to promise that DOJ will remain independent of Donald Trump.
Each of these reports is disturbing enough on their own. Taken collectively, they point toward a dark place: Trump’s Justice Department is chomping at the bit to use, and even misuse, the machinery of government to bestow tangible benefits — money, legal forgiveness and even weapons — on people the president views as allies, while refusing to keep the traditional institutional distance between the department and the president.
At best, this erosion of guardrails that preserve our democracy and rule of law, will continue to crush the remaining vestiges of credibility remaining in our justice system. At worst, Trump may be – intentionally or not, arming and paying a growing militia in our midst.