Rising verbal attacks by Donald Trump and key political allies against a Georgia district attorney and two other prosecutors who have filed criminal charges against the former US president are endangering prosecutorial independence and might spur acts of violence, ex-federal prosecutors and ex-House Republicans warn.
“Trump’s attacks on the federal and local prosecutors who have brought cases against him are unprecedented and extremely dangerous,” Michael Bromwich, the former justice department inspector general, told the Guardian.
As Trump has escalated his attacks on prosecutors who have charged him with 91 criminal offenses, including 17 involving his unrelenting drive to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, the congressman Jim Jordan and other Republican allies are loudly echoing his verbal assaults, and leading House investigations of key prosecutors.
Jordan, who chairs the House judiciary committee and is known for his firebrand style, launched an investigation of Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, last month after her office charged Trump and 18 co-conspirators with 41 counts for illegally trying to thwart Biden’s Georgia win.
Jordan blasted the Georgia grand jury charges as “just the latest political attack in the Democrats’ WITCH HUNT against President Trump”, and in August sent Willis a letter with a laundry list of documents he wanted for his probe.
Jordan, who has spent months spearheading a wide-ranging inquiry into the alleged “weaponization of the federal government”, demanded information about federal funds Willis’s office has received. Jordan’s letter also asked Willis for communications with the office of Jack Smith, the special counsel who earlier brought a four-count indictment against Trump involving his drive to overturn Biden’s win.
In a scathing nine-page rebuttal to Jordan on 7 September, Willis stressed “there is no justification in the constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter, as you attempt to do”.
Willis detailed “inaccurate information and misleading statements” in Jordan’s letter whose “obvious purpose is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding” and charged him with trying to “advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations”.
Before the Willis inquiry, Jordan launched attacks and an investigatoin in April of Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who charged Trump in a 34-count indictment with falsifying business records to hide $130,000 in payments he made in 2016 to an adult film star who alleged she had an affair with Trump.
Jordan’s investigations into Willis and Bragg did not happen in a vacuum.
For months, Trump has vilified Willis and Bragg, both of whom are Black, as “racist” prosecutors. Trump attacked Smith as “deranged” after his four-count indictment of Trump for his aggressive efforts to block Biden’s win included charges of defrauding the US government, and of obstructing an official proceeding, as the Capitol attack by Trump allies occurred as Congress certified Biden’s win on January 6.
Last month, Trump’s presidential campaign ran a television spot making unsubstantiated charges against Willis, and attacked Smith, Bragg and Letitia James, the New York attorney general, who is also Black and who has sued Trump and three of his children for alleged fraud involving the Trump Organization.
Trump has proclaimed he’s innocent in all these cases, and charged that the prosecutions are “witch-hunts” to hurt his campaign to become president again.
Former federal prosecutors are raising red flags about the risks to the justice system and the principle of prosecutorial independence posed by the attacks on Willis and other prosecutors by Trump, Jordan and other House allies
“Because Trump never took seriously his oath to protect and defend the constitution, he cannot fathom that prosecutors and law enforcement personnel do take it seriously and conduct investigations and bring charges based on the evidence and the law rather than to pursue enemies,” said Bromwich.
Bromwich added: “The GOP historical advocacy of states’ rights, which includes the need for local prosecutors to have autonomy from the federal government, has given way to the need to use the Congress to support Trump and attack his law enforcement enemies.”
Other Department of Justice veterans deplore the House probes of Willis and other prosecutors.
“Historically, congressional committees have assiduously honored the bedrock independence necessary for the execution of the criminal prosecutorial function,” said Paul Pelletier, the former acting chief of the justice department’s fraud section.
“It’s particularly rich here where Congressman Jordan, who callously refused to honor a lawful congressional subpoena, now seeks to investigate the motives of a duly elected prosecutor.”
Pelletier stressed that Willis’s response to Jordan showed she “is not going to countenance purely mischievous interference with her prosecutors. Given the many subtle and not-so-subtle calls to violence by Trump allies, it’s the most judicious path.”
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Former Republican lawmakers also have strong concerns about the red-hot rhetoric and inquiries launched by Trump’s House allies.
“Republicans are once again wasting time and money investigating the investigators,” Dave Trott, the former Michigan Republican congressman, said. “The efforts by Jordan and other Trump allies to investigate Bragg and Willis are not solving any of the problems facing our country and are being pursued for the sole purpose of raising campaign dollars by throwing red meat to their base. It is a waste of time and, even more troubling, their work is undermining our judicial system.”
“I suspect Trump, who has to be somewhat concerned about the numerous criminal proceedings he is facing, is the puppet master directing Jordan, and other top House allies such as speaker Kevin McCarthy, to attack Willis and other prosecutors. The attacks and investigations are a blatant attempt by Trump and his cronies to change the narrative and are not a proper use of the judiciary committee and congressional resources.”
Nonetheless, other Trump House allies like Matt Gaetz, the Florida congressman, have launched drives to help Trump rein in prosecutors.
Gaetz in July introduced a long-shot measure that would bar Smith’s inquiry from receiving federal funds by blocking his office from using “funds authorized or appropriated by federal law” and other federal funding mechanisms.
The wave of Republican attacks by Trump allies on prosecutors in tandem with other threats against them have prompted new security measures. According to the Washington Post, the US government spent almost $2m dollars for US marshals to “provide security to Smith and other officials between November 2022 and March 2023”.
Further, the heated attacks by Trump and his allies on the prosecutors who have brought charges against Trump have fueled enhanced security to protect other officials involved in “the proceedings around Trump’s criminal charges”, the Post reported.
Little wonder that the frenzied, Trump-inspired attacks on prosecutors and the House probe of Willis are raising alarms
“The rule of law means nothing to them, and the facts mean nothing to them,” Bromwich said about Trump’s House allies’ attacks on prosecutors. “They don’t respect Trump but they are afraid of the political damage he can cause them. That’s why they’ve become his unquestioning puppets.”
Charlie Dent, the former Republican congressman of Pennsylvania, said he’s worried about the House investigations of Willis and Bragg: “It feels unprecedented that they’re investigating prosecutors. It’s a policy disagreement about the charges Willis has brought.”
Dent added that the judiciary investigation of Willis “provides political cover for Trump”.
Still, some justice department veterans sound confident prosecutors won’t be deterred.
“As experienced prosecutors, I am confident that the special counsel and the district attorney are not influenced by the political attacks. Instead, it’s like adding gas to their engines,” said Michael Moore, the former US attorney from Georgia.
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