By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on February 13, 2020
COMMENTARY
President Donald J. Trump is doing something other presidents were afraid to do -- attack corruption and misconduct within the ranks of federal prosecutors. Trump is using the high-profile case of Roger Stone to spotlight this problem.
Most federal judges tolerate the misconduct of rogue federal prosecutors, including the ones who regularly commit fraud on the court as a matter of course. Some judges are actually afraid of federal prosecutors because these unelected federal law enforcement agents will turn on judges as quickly as they will turn on ordinary Americans. Nobody supervises their conduct. There are no mandatory professional standards of ethics or conduct for federal prosecutors.
Within the defense bar, rogue federal prosecutors are not respected. Criminal defense lawyers know that these prosecutors will cheat to win and that a lot of federal judges will turn their heads and look the other way while the cheating goes on.
Rogue federal prosecutors have a license to lie to grand juries, magistrates, trial judges, and appellate judges. They feel free to: (a) target potential defendants for political reasons, (b) manufacture phony criminal charges against political figures, controversial activists, Hollywood celebrities, unpopular public figures, and other "undesirables," (c) encourage pro-government witnesses to give testimony that is known to be false, (d) withhold or suppress evidence that is favorable to the defense, and (e) hijack the courtrooms of judges who are known to be weak, dumb, and lazy.
President Trump knows from personal experience that prosecutorial misconduct is rampant and dangerous. During the first two years of his presidency, Trump watched Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team of "corrupt" prosecutors use a criminal probe of the Trump Campaign's ties to Russia as a cover for an unsuccessful coup d'etat to overthrow this presidency. Trump also knows that these rogue prosecutors tried to hurt his oldest three children and his son-in-law.
These federal prosecutors were unsuccessful only because Trump de-balled Mueller with the power of his Twitter communications platform. At the end of the day, Mueller was no match for Trump.
If President Trump does not crush this kind of widespread prosecutorial misconduct and corruption, who will? Nobody.
The only people complaining about Donald Trump's efforts to reform the Department of Justice (DOJ) are the very partisan politicians who tried to remove the President from office through (a) Mueller's failed coup d'etat and (b) the ill-fated, half-baked impeachment effort.
Trump's next step should be this: The DOJ must bring criminal charges against the coup leaders and key participants. We now know who they are. We also know who aided and abetted the failed coup d'etat attempt, including the Republican sympathizers. Justice demands that these individuals be held accountable.
To get a very complete view of subject, read the book Mr Watkins suggested . . .Licensed to Lie by Sidney Powell. It is so detailed you'll get sick reading more than one chapter at a time.