Justice Dept., Under Siege From Trump, Plows Ahead With His Agenda

All that those amoral vengeful bitter (fill in your favorite term here) are doing is filling up prisons with non-violent offenders who would be much better served doing community service, as would society. Instead, they continue to ruin productive lives and saddle us with the burden of prison costs and later with the ruined lives of low level offenders and their families.

Sessions, Trump and his entire "Justice" Department should be the ones going to prison!

My disgust with Trump's treatment and scapegoating of AG Jeff Sessions stems from my belief that we should treat one another with respect and decency, even when we disagree completely with the person's actions. And I have no love lost for Mr. Sessions. I won't call him a racist because that word has been hijacked by both the right and the left. But I do see in Session's history and in his current DOJ policy pursuits the belief that blacks are not equal to whites, and the belief that dark immigrants are not equal to whites. His order to seek maximum sentences, and to allow police to seize the property of unconvicted suspects show his authoritarian intentions, and are dog whistles for those who think America is a country for whites. Today I saw a truck in Indianapolis with two big Confederate flags waving off of the back. The words "Heritage Not Hate" were super-imposed on the flags. Reminds me of dear, sweet, polite AG Sessions. That flag can never be separated from slavery, and slavery and Jim Crow laws can never be separated from hate.
Or dog whistle policies.

This little little man wants to remake the entire country into the American southeast of the early 20th century. Bring back the right to discriminate in wages, sentencing, minorities, women, and don't even consider the LGBT comminity. Then to ensure the policies are lasting go after voting rights across the country. Trumps request to provide the voting preferences to his so called committee investigating so called voter fraud is down right scary.
The tea party consrvatives rail that we are losing our freedoms due to big government. We will be loosing our freedoms to the southern plutocrats.

I can applaud Sessions efforts to turn off the excess noise in his office, given how out of control the verbiage is from the Oval Office.

However, this attempt to return to the utterly imaginary world of Mayberry RFD is ridiculous. I know there are many who would wish to return to the 1950s, but several of my friends are happier being able to sit in the front of the bus, thank you very much.

CONSERVATIVE: traditional, moderate and caution should be a useful tool in anyone’s life tool box. Be aware of what we have learned and be cautious in making changes, for those that do not know their past, are doomed to repeat it. Here’s where the conservatives have failed. Instead of learning from our past, they are repeating it. Those times where there were the very rich, while the rest of the population did without. There were the starving, ill, diseased, uneducated, beaten, poor and the abused. Conservatives are stopping programs for the public’s: health, food, education and veterans care. Conservatives have chosen to relive the part of “Charles Dickens Scrooge” except that there won’t be three spirits coming to mend the problem.

'Spirit. are they yours.' Scrooge could say no more.

'They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon them.
And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers.
This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want.
Beware them both and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy,
for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the
writing be erased. Deny it.' cried the Spirit, stretching out
its hand towards the city. 'Slander those who tell it ye.
Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse.
And abide the end.'

'Have they no refuge or resource.' cried Scrooge.

'Are there no prisons.' said the Spirit, turning on him
for the last time with his own words. 'Are there no workhouses.'

Not conservative... authoritarian.

Silly me, I thought the Reconstruction era ended long ago. But no, America's bad old days were merely taking a long nap.

How come tough on crime doesn't apply to GOP suspects? How come they claim they were victims and ask for a Pardon?

" He has expanded the ability of the police to seize people's assets, irrespective of whether they may have been convicted of a crime one even charged."

When I read this statement, chills ran up and down my spine. We're not talking about Turkey, Venezuela or the Philippines here.

If I was an American citizen, I would find this policy to be very, very disturbing.

Has Trump tried luring away Duterte's or Erdogan's Attorney Generals yet?

" He has expanded the ability of the police to seize people’s assets, irrespective of whether they may have been convicted of a crime or even charged. "

For about nine months now, the media has been beating the drum about the opioid crisis. I had a hunch that it was a prelude to the War on Drugs, Part II, and now the terrible policy of forfeiture is expanded with a vengeance!

I recall news stories about the terrible consequences of forfeiture on innocent people, legitimate businesses were ruined and lives destroyed.

All the War on Drugs has accomplished was to fuel organized crime. Wasn't anything learned from Prohibition?

But, the key words are: no charge, no trial, no conviction. As we have learned from the War on Terror, an American citizen can even forfeit his life without charge, trial, and conviction -- at the whim of the President! What has happened to America?

When Jeff Sessions "hand washes his bowl," does he think he's Pontius Pilate during Jesus' trial? (That's not to suggest that he might have any real plans to crucify leakers!)

The “Take Care Clause” of the Constitution tasks presidents to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Presidents are supposed to enforce all laws—including drug laws and immigration laws—whether he or she agrees or disagrees with them. The Justice Departments serves as the president’s enforcement agency. If Americans don’t want laws enforced, they should vote from Congressmen to change the law. The view that presidents should feel free to enforce some laws but not others is what fills presidential campaigns with such fear and loathing. Presidents are not supposed to have personal agendas. They are supposed to take care laws passed by Congress are executed.

Twentieth-century Europe immediately comes to mind.

The feeling of self-righteousness is palpable and cloying. An actual sense of formerly unfelt fear which may have accompanied Goebbels' rise to power is filtering through the long held "It can't happen here."

I hesitate to consider the historical thought behind these words.

Let's hope that the Justice Department is as tough and uncompromising when they prosecute Trump for money laundering, corruption and obstruction of Justice, and when they prosecute Jeff Sessions for perjury for lying to Congress. That will truly be justice done.

Mr.Sessions is a dinosaur. He does not understand the social impacts of his directives. This is 2017, not 1950. All his rollbacks set the USA back.

Who's under siege from whom? This is a zero-sum game and Trump is not holding the best of cards - in large part because he did not start with a full deck.

Sessions and Bannon made Trump King so no sympathy for either of them since they knew what they were getting with the man-child.

"Justice Dept. under siege from Trump"...this is news? How about simply stating "Justice" under siege from trump?

Maybe I should finish the piece, but all I keep reading is trumpian reframing here.

Let's be very clear. Jeff Sessions and the DOJ are not carrying out the presidents conservative agenda. No, no, the president, and the DOJ, are carrying out Jeff Sessions/Steve Bannon's conservative agenda.

It is they who made Trump king.

Although I do not agree with the AG on everything . I strongly support him on a hard line immigration position. Mr. Session one of the bright spots of this administration .

appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the 30,000 missing email, the Clinton foundation, and comey's lack of having a grand jury empaneled for the Clinton issues

What a shame the Sessions DOJ is no longer coddling criminals and race-agitating. It's almost like they view their role as law enforcement rather than social justice activists inflaming racial tensions.

Fantastic news for the for-profit prison industry. "Tough on Crime." I love it when they play the oldies.

Not that his boss has noticed. Sessions will not receive an apology from Trump because all that the President cares or think about when it comes to the Justice Department is the Russian investigation and, he will always think that in recusing himself, Session was being unloyal. Conflict of interest is not in Trump's dictionary.

The conservative agenda used as a platform in his campaign was like a jingle to attract voters. Nothing more.

OUR Justice Department is "under siege"? NO. OUR United States of America is under siege from within.

West Virginia's "democratic" governor just pledged his allegiance to The Con Don and his International Mafia Top 1% Global Financial Elite Robber Baron/Radical religions Good Old Boys Party.

There are now 32 "republican" governors. The Koch brothers, Dictator Grover Norquist, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Karl Rove and their Robber Baron buddies/bosses plan to call a "Constitutional Convention" to permanently alter OUR U.S. Constitution and turn The United States of America into a dictatorship - just as they are trying to do in Turkey and other International Mafia controlled countries around the world.

Here is what Wikipedia says about calling a Constitutional Convention:
"A Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution, also called an Article V Convention, or Amendments Convention, called for by two-thirds (currently 34) of the state legislatures, is one of two processes authorized by Article Five of the United States Constitution whereby the Constitution, the nation's frame of government, may be altered. Amendments may also be proposed by the Congress with a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.[1]"

This is a SERIOUS DANGER TO THE UNITED STATES FROM WITHIN.

Good People of the media with a social conscience PLEASE GET THE WORD OUT. NOW!! This must not stand in America - not now not ever.

Mr. Rosenstein states, “Nobody is directing us and nobody is going to direct us about which cases to pursue.” but:

"All the same, Mr. Sessions is carrying out the president’s conservative agenda with head-turning speed, roiling critics on the left and leaving some career staff members within the department disoriented by the sea change."

The Justice Department today just might be there to service the unstable rants of an egomaniacal fascist and his surly followers. For Trump, the DoJ is there for Trump. It's there to trap immigrants, search for his imagined leakers and identify and create enemies of his administration, "1984" style.

But Trump won't allow the DoJ to address the inordinate corporate influence in the White House and Trump's highly questionable business ties.

Trump's agenda is driven by his self-aggrandizement. Were the DoJ to support that dysfunction, it would foster the end of our democracy. The DoJ would be responding to Hitlerian rants. It is General Kelly who has to assure Sessions that he is still the AG, not our so-called president Trump.

Trump is so self-involved that he would fire a good conservative in the critical post of AG in order to find an AG who would service his egomania. Now, it is only General Kelly who can enforce stability in the White House. Without that stability, Rosenstein's assurance of a functional independence.for the DoJ is greatly weakened, and, indeed, may lack credibility.

Republicans will protect Jeff Sessions at all costs. They know what an astounding thing his appointment was. This is an elderly Alabamian who was once denied a federal judgeship because of his outspoken, public displays of racism. It was only by fluke, a phenomena that will never be repeated, that he landed his current position, and they want to make the most of it while they can. Given half a chance, this insane little man will drag our nation back into the bowels of the deep south mid-fifties.

To a bodyguard, everyone looks like a potential perp except the person the bodyguard is protecting. We often hear people complain the police see one group as the enemy and another group as the ones they are protecting.

The same can be said for the way Sessions is running the Justice Department: broad sweeping prejudice against one group by relentlessly pressing for mandatory minimums, harsher sentencing and rolling back "policies on gay rights, voting rights, and criminal justice."

So we know what side the Justice Department has chosen to defend and what side to attack, and if you are white, heterosexual, christian not living in an impoverished region, chances are you're going to be well protected and your rights upheld.

We have returned to the Wild West. Sessions, the new sheriff in town, and Rosenstein, his hapless deputy, are shooting first and asking questions later (maybe), are making sure the Mexicans and Indians stay out of Dodge, are convincing citizens that more people behind bars will make them safer, while working for the biggest criminal in town, the robber baron landowner who terrorizes all he comes in contact with and who thinks the end justifies the means.

Sounds like a spaghetti western to me.

Wait, the cops can now come take your house for no reason just suspicion of reason. Is that what I read. And when they do it they can pound your head on the van door while placing you in the patty wagon of death. Is that correct. That is justice to these right wing christian conservative fascists. Really. Just WOW! What a country.

No mystery why Sessions hasn't quit his post as a result of Trump's withering abuse. His sense of pride is nothing compared to his desire to make the US a white, Christian nature. He's on a mission from God and he's used Trump as much as Trump used him. He knew with a little flattery and ring kissing that Trump would do what no other US president would ever consider: hand over the justice department to a segregationist from the deep south. Swallowing his pride is a small price to pay.

Mr. Rosenstein is making a complete fool of himself. One expects that from J. Beauregard Sessions, but what is in this for Rosenstein? Surely, he knows when all is said and done, the anti-Semites in the Oval Office will toss him right out. I have to assume that Trump's cryptic "he's from Baltimore" was laying the groundwork for that move.

Sessions and Trump have offered more rotten, low-hanging fruit than I can ever recall from any corrupt group, and the GOP is wildly complicit.

My fear is, this may not be a last gasp by white, mysogynist regressionists.

I don't see any Democrats, Independents or otherwise honorable Republicans loudly and publicy standing to win the whitehouse. It may be too early in a political cycle to do so, but it certainly isn't too early to save democracy.

Our frog has been boiled...

The "Party of Small Government" right up until they're in charge. Then they'll approve governmental discrimination of minority groups, legal theft by police in violation of your 4th Amendment rights, and generally upending nearly every mark of progress made on social, criminal, and economical equality made prior.

Some mighty fine "Justice" Department. Real American values at work, surely.

What we have here is the pendulum swinging back. To some extent.

Holder was helping the minorities and was friendly to business. Sessions is rolling back those pro-minority rules and is friendly to business. Plus ca change.

I can have no respect for Sessions because he committed perjury during his confirmation hearing.

And shockingly, we have largely forgotten that during those hearings, Senator Franken exposed as deliberate lies, fabrications that Sessions and his supporters had contrived regarding his record on minority rights, which is a horrible record.

Where Sessions is abusing the powers of the United States Department of Justice to confiscate people's assets and property though they have not been found guilty of any crime, what does the word "justice" have to do with what Sessions is giving his henchmen license to inflict on innocent Americans?

When our country's lead attorney manifests opposition to the presumption of innocence, he is not due any respect.

And again -- it can't be said often enough -- Sessions lied under oath -- he committed perjury -- and should not be in office.

More chest thumping and posturing. Prosecute the ones with the briefcases, ya know, like Bernie Madoff. These are the ones who have, and continue to destroy countless lives, not the person with a nickle bag. Of course, that would be "Draining the swamp" for real, and that won't do. No one but the dull and ignorant are fooled by this nonsense. Beauregard hand washes his own bowl....hilarious line.

Thanks for another enlightening piece of reporting, NYT! This is the kind of thing that affect our lives and should be talked about a lot more.

Could it be that Trump was providing a smoke screen for what was really happening at the DOJ, to give Sessions space to bulldoze through his extremist agenda and to keep the prying eyes away from reality? Is it possible that what Kushner said was a part of the effort to portray an image of an utterly haplessness administration? Makes you wonder...

This is too funny. So ya think the Democrats are going to ride the Russia horse all the way over a cliff? There is nothing but Russia anywhere, and in the meantime the DOJ is eating Democrats' lunch. And their message to the voters is, er ... wait a minute, hmm ... can't actually recall the slogan they trotted out a couple of weeks ago. It was sooo good.

The party of dumb rises to the occasion yet again. What’s missing now is another one or two SCOTUS appointments, and Trump can go on vacation for the rest of this term. The only thing the Democrats have at this stage is to try to hobble, delay, distract, using anything that they think might work, like Russia - except it only works on their echo chamber. My God, have you heard?! Trump made a political speech in front of the Boy Scouts! The shame! What a scoundrel! Impeach him!!!

Right. In the meantime, Trump's base is solid and every time there is an attack on him by the MSM and Congress (left and the hapless establishment right), the base, which doesn't follow MSM (for good reason), takes that to be an attack on them. A real good strategy, left wing.

Yesterday one major talking head on cable, a flaming Democrat, asked three other more flaming Democrats he was talking heads with an intelligent question: Do you think Trump can get re-elected? All three gasped, and said yes.

As liberals are fond of saying, connect the dots. Lucky 2018 is so close, and 2020 not that far.

Abe Lincoln is turning over in his grave. General Grant should have kept the defeated Southern states as vassals of the Union.

This is clearly an agenda to make America White Again, and jail, disenfranchise, or deport everyone else.

Ideology isn't justice. Advancing Trump's agenda isn't what this department should be doing.

Please Mr. Mueller!! Work faster!!! This administration must be ousted!!!!!

Just curious.

Is anybody keeping track of where the money comes from for Trump's travel budget regarding campaign travel vs. official government business travel? Are taxpayers funding these self-aggrandizing events so that campaign coffers may be lined only to be emptied to pay for legal expenses for family and friends who will soon be seeking pardon relief from the Big Cheese? The ethics trail crosses with the money trail. Where is the Justice Dept. in all this? I'm so confused.

This story is so great
I so wish the times, and the rest of the MSM would do more of this and less on the "palace intrigue" at the whitehouse (1)

I think it is sad that as of 11:17 am eastern time, not one comment yet on this great story

1) another example of wasting time : today, NPRs "On Point", out of Boston's WBUR, with Tom Ashbrook as host: they spent almost an hour wasting time on , quote, "palace intrigue"
not one word on all the horrible (from my point of view) or good (from a conservatives POV) stuff Sessions, Pruitt et al are doing

PLEASE more of this

And white collar crime?

Well, duh. The south shall rise again. That's their mantra, everything else is a distraction and superfluous. As for Donald, that's his BASE. That's all he's got. And they are obviously not just southerners, but dispersed throughout the Country. Racism and Sexism, the twin cornerstones of GOP
" Doctrine". Please Proceed, 2018 is approaching. Bigly.

Nasty, narrow-minded DOJ run by a nasty, narrow-minded little man. And I don't "little" because of his height.

Sessions and Rosenstein share a trait absent in Trump - discipline.
It seems not having a Twitter account is part of their strategy to avoid the distractions by the Great Distracter.