Pardons and Paybacks Are Trump’s Two Modes of Justice

Opinion|Pardons and Paybacks Are Trump’s Two Modes of Justice

Payback and projection have long been two of President Trump’s touchstones. He settles scores in return for every perceived slight and accuses his targets of what he has done himself. In his second term, that approach has bled into the law, with perilous consequences.

More than most other areas of presidential authority, the Justice Department gives Mr. Trump a way to settle scores — and to help friends. Of course, no one can be convicted without a guilty verdict, but simply by launching an investigation, the federal government can impose ruinous reputational and financial costs.

At the same time, the Trump administration has essentially unlimited discretion to look away from criminality by allies: to halt ongoing D.O.J. investigations, end existing prosecutions and even overturn settled cases. And the Constitution imposes no limit on the president’s power to pardon anyone at any time.

For decades, at least since the aftermath of Watergate, the custom at the Justice Department has been to establish a measure of independence from the political interests of the president. This tradition was especially strong among lower-level federal prosecutors and law enforcement agents, whose careers have been allowed to continue seamlessly from one administration to the next. From Day 1, President Trump and his allies shattered this unwritten but real understanding.

On Jan. 20, the president issued an executive order purporting to address the “unprecedented, third-world weaponization of prosecutorial power” during the administration of President Joe Biden. Mr. Trump directed the attorney general, Pam Bondi, who had yet to be confirmed, to correct her department’s actions against “perceived political opponents,” especially several Jan. 6 rioters at the Capitol, whom the president pardoned the same day.

Weaponization can work two ways: by punishing adversaries or rewarding supporters. Notwithstanding the executive order, the Trump administration has been doing both.