Mike Johnson, speaker of the house, in a press conference yesterday, said that they are hiring staff to blur some faces in the Jan 6 tapes they are releasing to the public. The reason he gives is, “…because we don’t want them to be retaliated against…and to be charged by the DOJ…and to have other concerns and problems…”

The narrative that republicans would have you believe is that the Jan 6 riot at the capital was not an insurrection, but rather a peaceful gathering and that the DOJ is being weaponized by the Biden administration to go after innocent Republicans (including Donald Trump).

I wish I knew some of the folks who work in the Department of Justice. Some of the staffers. Because I’d really like to ask them how they feel about being accused of being puppets of the current administration. Without independence from the White House, DOJ would lose its legitimacy. During the Trump Administration, when the President was pushing to install Jeffery Clark as Acting Attorney General in a plot to overturn the 2020 election results, the entire DOJ leadership team threatened to walk off the job en masse.

DOJ has a manual that provides clear guidelines on how to maintain independence from both Congress and the White House. Here’s a link to the relevant section (title 1-8) that I discovered as I was researching this article. And think about it. It’s not like DOJ is stuffed full of democrats. Law enforcement traditionally attracts conservatives, not liberals. Which once again makes me wonder how these folks would feel about these stories that make them out to be lackeys for the left.

The irony here is that during the Trump administration, republicans encouraged the politicization of the DOJ. When the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia were under investigation, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich argued that “the president of the United States cannot obstruct justice,” because as chief executive officer the President has full power to direct federal prosecutions and fire anyone who does not comply.

DOJ independence isn’t written into law. It’s simply a norm. But this norm has been historically practiced for years, and lawyers that work for DOJ are proud of their independence. In 1973 President Nixon ran into this when he tried to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Both his AG and deputy AG resigned in protest. Nixon had finally convinced the third official in line, Robert Bork, to get the job done, in what was later called the “Saturday Night Massacre”.

Donald Trump regularly makes claims that his federal indictments are political in nature. The prosecution of a former president is very serious. But if it really was a political stunt, I’d expect to see lots of resignations within DOJ. What I’m seeing instead are some very strong cases that appear to be getting stronger every day.

For some historical context on DOJ independence, check out this article in the Alabama Law Review, “Can the President control the Department of Justice?”