Barr Is Going After Trump’s Enemies One by One

Jonathan Chait: “In May of 2016, shortly after Donald Trump had wrapped up his party’s nomination, but when the notion he might win the presidency seemed remote at best, Benjamin Wittes wrote one of the very early essays attempting to analyze how an obviously authoritarian president might abuse his powers. ‘The soft spot, the least tyrant-proof part of the government, is the U.S. Department of Justice,’ he argued, laying out how prosecutorial discretion could allow a president to harass his domestic enemies.”

“Yesterday’s news that the Department of Justice is exploring yet another probe of James Comey, the former FBI director turned Trump antagonist, would seem to confirm those fears have been borne out.”