President Donald Trump’s actions to turn the Department of Justice into a personal political weapon are facing increased resistance, even from some of his fellow Republicans.
The department has chosen inaction in the case of ICE’s killing of Renee Good in Minnesota, reinforcing Trump’s hostility toward the state and Black Somali immigrants living there.
MS Now reported on Tuesday that at least four leaders in the DOJ’s civil rights division, where investigations of police killings are conducted, have resigned. Those resignations occurred because the division, under Trump-appointed Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon decided not to investigate Good’s death.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon has aided Trump in crippling the DOJ.
The division was created to protect American civil rights in the wake of widespread abuses against Black people and other ethnic minorities throughout the country’s history.
Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s attorney general, said the non-response from the Civil Rights Division echoed the department’s decision against helping authorities investigate the shooting.
“When you put that together with the state authorities being excluded from even access to the evidence—like shell casings, the car—I don’t have any confidence that a use-of-force investigation is actually even happening when it comes to the death of Renee Good,” he told the Washington Post.
At the same time the FBI, which is under the DOJ, is reportedly investigating whether Good was a political activist or not—as if that would justify her death.
The DOJ has also been weaponized to go after figures like former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Leticia James, who Trump has singled out as his political enemies for speaking out against his corrupt behaviors.
Those efforts have been rejected in the court system so far, with decisions against the DOJ made by a grand jury and a U.S. district judge.
Revenge has long been a motivator for Trump and DOJ has been the vehicle for many of his efforts during his second term. Most congressional Republicans have gone along with him, but now even that layer of support is facing some erosion.
Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook, right, talks with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who have both been targets of Trump.
Several Republicans have made public statements of opposition after the DOJ opened an investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who Trump has repeatedly criticized, despite the fact Trump appointed Powell to his position in 2017.
“It’s clear the administration’s investigation is nothing more than an attempt at coercion,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, said in a statement. “If the Department of Justice believes an investigation into Chair Powell is warranted based on project cost overruns—which are not unusual—then Congress needs to investigate the Department of Justice.”
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said the DOJ’s investigation was part of a plot by the administration to “end the independence of the Federal Reserve.” Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick and even Louisiana’s John Kennedy, staunch Trump allies, also expressed skepticism about the investigation.
Trump has been trying to pressure Powell to lower interest rates in an attempt to make up for the negative effects Trump policies like tariffs have had on the economy since he took over last January. Trump inherited an economy growing under former President Joe Biden, which is now facing Trump-induced headwinds.
The administration is using the pretext of cost overruns on Federal Reserve construction projects as a pretext for legal action against Powell, with an eye toward pressuring policy changes or forcing him out of his position.
Trump continues to operate as if the taxpayer financed division of the federal government is his personal plaything, but the rest of the world is refusing to comply.
