'A lawless freefall': Ex-prosecutor chides Trump DOJ's latest troubles
A former federal prosecutor chided President Donald Trump's Department of Justice on Monday over its latest scandal.
On Monday, the Department of Justice fired Robert McBride, the second-highest-ranking prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, after he refused to bring charges against former FBI Director James Comey. McBride had begun to take on a more prominent role in the office after a federal judge said the appointment of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was illegal.
McBride was fired at a time when the Trump administration is ramping up pressure against the president's political enemies. Most recently, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro launched an investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's handling of the $2.5 billion headquarters renovation, an investigation that some experts have said is specious at best.
Glenn Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., discussed McBride's firing in a new episode of "Justice Matters" on Monday.
"Donald Trump and Pam Bondi's Department of Justice is in a lawless freeall," Kirschner said. "Even when they bring people in to act as henchmen, people they perceive as flunkies, even those people are like, 'I'm not reindicting that vindictive case against James Comey.'"
He added that Bondi and the rest of the DOJ appear to be "operating without an ethical net."
"Let's hope that the day comes soon when they are no longer in any kind of leadership positions at the Department of Justice," he said.