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Download the Viator app now to use code Viator10 for 10% off your first booking in the app. Regret less. Do more with Viator. Hey, everyone. Ellie here wishing you a happy Friday. We're going to take next week off because next Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. So I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. Look, Thanksgiving is just the best holiday. I'm not even willing to debate that. You all know I keep an open mind, sometimes take contrarian positions, but
This isn't up for debate. All it is is food, hanging out with family, maybe throwing the football around. There's just no way to top it. This will be a first for me at Thanksgiving, a special one, because my son is a first-year college student, so he's coming home, and I haven't seen him in two months, and I know anyone else who's in this position probably feels the same way. I'm ready to feed this kid. I've got dishes planned. He's going to eat good when he's home, but it's extra exciting for me. To any of you, especially, who are
greeting your children home from college or any students who are going home. It's a great time of year. Anyway, okay, on to this week's column. So this is a column that sort of happened organically for me because it was another incident of Donald Trump giving an interview and saying ridiculous things, which we truly do sometimes become numb to. I had heard this interview where Trump said what he said, which I talk about in this column, and it kind of rolled off my back, but it hit home for me
how serious this is. When I was on air at CNN, and I knew we were going to be doing a segment about it, and the anchor, our morning show anchor, Phil Mattingly, who's a great anchor, straightforward, straight shooter, doesn't often get worked up about things in a good way because he's so even keeled and steady, played this clip and just turned to me and said, it's insane. And I sort of realized, yeah, it is insane. And I
This is not the kind of thing that we can just sort of brush off as just, well, Trump being Trump. It is insane. Phil's right. And when he says it, it really resonated with me. So I wanted to expand on that a bit with this week's column. Hope you enjoy it. As always, thanks for listening and we'll catch you after the break.
There was very little that scared me as a prosecutor. Don't get me wrong, I worried plenty. How will I get this brief done by the motions deadline at the end of the week? Is this cooperator going to hold up on the stand? Did we remember to turn over all the prior witness statements in discovery? In fact, this is largely the professional life of the prosecutor. Every day you run around whack-a-moling tasks that you've been fretting about.
But actual fear, the kind that fills you not just with anxiety, but with dread, that was quite rare. I wasn't frightened of the mob or of any of my defendants. I found a few judges and a smattering of defense lawyers intimidating, though not scary. I got the butterflies before any jury address, to be sure, but that was more adrenaline than fear.
Only later in my career, when I'd moved off the line and into the supervisory ranks, did I find something that truly scared me. Hiring new prosecutors.
Because by that point, after I'd been doing the job for over a decade, I fully understood just how much power every individual prosecutor carries. Power over individual liberty, over reputation, over careers and families, over lives. Handing that awesome power to somebody else, often a young person with little legal or real world experience, and hoping they didn't misuse it or abuse it on my watch. Now that's scary.
I was given that power as a brand new prosecutor with the Southern District of New York in 2004 when I was only 29 years old. It rattles my nerves even now, heck, even more so now as I look back almost 20 years later. I was closer then to my current college freshman son's age than to my own current age. And while he's a good kid, he's most definitely not ready to make daily decisions that carry life altering consequences for others.
Later, as the director of the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, I'd often hire new prosecutors who were maybe 26 or 27 a year or two out of law school with only a clerkship or a couple years of practice under their belts. It felt like handing a machine gun to a toddler, giving unimaginable, potentially destructive power to people who didn't yet have any real sense how to use it.
Indeed, I was often told as a newbie prosecutor that I needed to be mindful of this power. As Attorney General Robert Jackson said in a famous 1940 speech given in the majestic Great Hall of the Justice Department, quote,
While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst, end quote. Jackson detailed how every decision a prosecutor makes, who to investigate, whether to issue a subpoena, who to arrest, what crimes to charge, who gets a plea deal, what sentence to recommend, every one of those decisions can destroy a person's reputation, career, family, finances, and ultimately freedom and personal liberties.
On my first day on the job at the SDNY, I was given a more colloquial version of the Jackson speech. The boss said something to me along the lines of, we're giving you the DOJ insignia on everything you do, and now you're going to have grown men begging you for mercy. Now don't f*** it up.
This is why Donald Trump's comments in a recent interview with Univision are so alarming. When asked if he would weaponize DOJ and the FBI against his political opponents if reelected, Trump responded, If they do this, they've already done it.
But if they want to follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse. It could certainly happen in reverse. What they've done is they've released the genie out of the box. You understand that. They have done something that allows the next party. I mean, if somebody, if I happen to be president and I see somebody who's doing well and beating me very badly, I say, go down and indict them. You know, they would be out of business. They'd be out. They'd be out of the election.
It's clear what Trump means, but I'll translate through his garbled syntax. DOJ is prosecuting me now to knock me out of the election, so I'll do the same to anyone who crosses me after I retake power.
Here's one way that a potential second term would differ from Trump's first. He would hire and empower only the truest of true believers, folks who would carry out his worst instincts without pushback. Now, take Bill Barr, for example. I've certainly been intensely critical of Barr for his conduct as attorney general. My first book's title pretty much tells you what I think of the guy. Hatchet Man, How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutor's Code and Corrupted the Justice Department. Any questions? Any questions is not part of the title.
But as dishonest and dangerous as Barr was, he also had certain lines even he wouldn't cross. For example, while in office, Trump routinely called publicly for prosecutions of his perceived political enemies, Joe Biden and his family, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, James Comey, Andy McCabe, and more. But Barr took the tack that experienced parents sometimes take with an unruly toddler. Just ignore him and he'll scream himself out eventually.
While Barr repeatedly abused his power as AG to rescue several Trump cronies from just prosecutions, recall his disgraceful intervention in the Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn cases, and
He never went on the offensive and used his power to take out the people on Trump's hit list. Similarly, on and around January 6th, we saw other grownups in positions of power around Trump, some of whom hadn't otherwise covered themselves in bravery and glory, stand up to him or refuse to indulge his best instincts. Pat Cipollone, Jeffrey Rosen, Mike Pence.
The difference is that Trump is not going to empower Bill Barr or anyone like him the next time around. If Trump retakes the presidency, there's nothing to stop him from appointing Rudy Giuliani as attorney general, Sidney Powell as FBI director, John Eastman as solicitor general. Shudder, if you will. But what's to stop him? You don't think the Senate would ever confirm these rogues, some or all of whom could be convicted felons by then? You're probably right. But Trump has a counter move.
As he infamously declared in 2018, responding to criticism about the many temporary non-confirmed or acting placeholders in his administration, Trump said, quote, I like acting again, acting, meaning temporary or acting personnel appointments. It gives me more flexibility. Do you understand that? I like acting. So we have a few that are acting. We have a great, great cabinet end quote. Yeah, I do understand that.
I recognize that I'm mostly stating the obvious here. Trump's remarks are dangerous, unhinged, outrageous, and yes, scary. I also understand that I'm preaching to the choir for the most part. But certain issues are so important that they need to be underscored even if they're obvious. Anytime Trump promises to abuse the powers of prosecution, we need to hear him, believe that he'll do it, and call it out.
It's scary enough to put the powers of prosecution in the hands of a single, lowly, 29-year-old new prosecutor like I once was, and like the ones who I later hired. Now imagine bringing the power of the entire Justice Department to bear, to carry out one man's political vengeance fantasies. Plenty of what Trump does and says is laughable and deserving of a shrug off. Not this. This is way too serious to ignore. Thanks for listening, everyone. Stay safe and stay informed.
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