Carol Sipperly was a federal prosecutor with 25 years of experience and a current member of the Steering Committee of Maine Lawyers for the Rule of Law.

The Department of Justice is no longer independently serving justice and guarding the Constitution for the people of the United States. It now serves at the whims of the current president. Donald Trump’s revenge tour, his disregard of the Constitution and his grift are all served up by “his” DOJ.

And it’s happening because 1)  the Supreme Court gave Trump immunity for his interactions with DOJ; and 2) Trump stacked the high ranks of DOJ with loyalists eager to do his bidding. 
 
Giving Trump carte blanche is dangerous. It allows him to exert pressure on DOJ in ways we’ve never seen before. Trump heedlessly directs DOJ to punish his opponents and reward his supporters. In response, DOJ — acting like Trump’s personal law firm —  readily opens investigations (and attempts to follow with thin prosecutions) of Trump’s political enemies because they criticized him; because they stated the obvious that military members do not have to follow illegal orders; because they prosecuted cases he disagreed with; or because they made decisions that affected him or his family or his allies negatively.

All are wholly improper reasons to initiate investigations and profound abuses of criminal enforcement. We saw an even more disturbing turn of events when DOJ agreed to 1) create a slush fund of taxpayer dollars that could have (and likely would have, if it went forward) paid out criminally convicted rioters, rewarding them for their praise and support of Trump and indeed their violence at his behest; and 2) immunized Trump and his sons for just about anything relating to their IRS audits.

The DOJ’s lack of independence has also resulted in blind defense of Trump’s blatant disregard of the Constitution during immigration enforcement. The DOJ’s loyalty to Trump instead of the Constitution should matter to everyone. Its utter lack of independence threatens all of us. 
 
I was a federal prosecutor for more than 25 years. I served in various field offices as well as DOJ headquarters and rose from a trial attorney to higher level supervisory positions. All through my years (except during the Trump 1.0 administration) decisions were made based on the evidence and were never politically motivated.

We never felt pressure to charge for the wrong reason. We were never asked to disregard the Constitution or our duty of candor. Judges expected us to act as guardians of the Constitution and the truth. They would defer to our decisions and deliberations absent bad faith.

While judges were and should have been skeptical when necessary, we now see DOJ prosecutors losing all credibility in the courts.  
 
During Trump 1.0, there was pushback at the leadership level with threats of resignation that halted bad decisions and practices. This simply does not happen now. While we lost many dedicated prosecutors, there remain plenty of staff prosecutors who serve honorably and true to their oath to guard and protect the Constitution. We now, however, have high-level DOJ officials  eager to serve Trump’s every whim. 
 
Now more than ever, the rule of law is paramount. Both everyday citizens and judges sitting in courts throughout the country are upholding the rule of law to fill the DOJ vacuum. Unlike ever before, grand jurors are refusing to indict cases presented per the current DOJ agenda.

Regarding several Trump targets — understanding their grave responsibility — grand jurors refused to indict. It’s unprecedented to see grand jurors refusing to indict, but it’s also unprecedented for DOJ to ask grand jurors to indict flimsy, unworthy cases as a subterfuge to punish political foes.

Judges are also checking Trump’s lawlessness. They have rejected Trump’s sweeping unconstitutional practices by reinforcing our due process rights, protecting against unlawful searches and seizures and dismissing cases when the administration and DOJ overstepped.        
 
Unfortunately, Americans serving as jurors and an independent judiciary are our only guardrails against a co-opted DOJ. They are our only hope. We can’t count on the integrity of DOJ leadership any longer.