Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Bryce Harper, Joey Gallo and a bond forged by baseball since they were kids

Walter Johnson’s jersey from 1920 showdown with Babe Ruth is up for auction

A taco will always be a taco — no matter what we call it

No one is rocking in the ‘free world’

Kenyan president aims to attract green investment during U.S. visit

On Gaza, Biden is right and Netanyahu is wrong

Why this company’s biggest fans turned against it

These ISIS news anchors are AI fakes. Their propaganda is real.

Even remote and hybrid work can burn you out. Here’s how to avoid it.

Elections 2024 live updates: Biden continues outreach to Black voters; Trump heading to Minnesota

At campus protests, ‘DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA’!

CNN gets a presidential debate — and a much-needed win

Did Trump’s lawyers catch Michael Cohen in a ‘lie’? Let’s take a look.

Now playing off-Broadway: Trump’s synchronized sycophants

Trump’s courtroom enablers

Look to the cloud to protect the life documents saved on your computer

Can you spot bad financial advice on TikTok? Take our quiz.

5 myths about Social Security as the program faces a funding crisis

Tariffs against China hamstring the transition to a clean energy future

The Post’s choices in Northern Virginia’s U.S. House primaries

States see legalized sports betting as a tax windfall — but at what cost?

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Man, 91, shocks tiny firehouse with $500K gift: ‘Nobody knew how much I’d saved’

Retired cop meets abandoned baby he helped 23 years ago: ‘What are the odds?’

The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story

6 Airbnb red flags to spot before you make a booking mistake

Some cruise prices are about to get a little more clear

Miss Manners: Longtime friends lose minds over canceled dinner plans

Carolyn Hax: After holiday meals, guests rush the kitchen to claim the leftovers

Ask Amy: Retired couple misses social activities since the pandemic

In photos: The scene in Houston after severe storms killed at least 4 people

Rep. AOC's 'people-first' approach

Rep. Delia Ramirez on organizing power and money

Trump

Jabin Botsford

It was inevitable that the Trump administration’s politically motivated misuse of the investigative arms of government would burst into public view and demand accountability. That moment is upon us.

The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/us/politics/justice-department-leaks-trump-administration.html">revelation</a> that the Trump Justice Department secretly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/trump-justice-department-democrats-congress/2021/06/11/7c2b1aa8-cace-11eb-a11b-6c6191ccd599_story.html">sought the phone records</a> of two Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee who were among President Donald Trump’s sharpest critics (along with those of their aides and family members) was the shock that the system needed.

It underscored the tension between two essential goals for the Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland: how to depoliticize a department that effectively became an arm of the White House under Trump without evading the imperative of requiring a lawless presidency to answer for its abuses.

Garland has faced <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/merrick-garland-trump-jean-carroll/2021/06/09/be448bd8-c978-11eb-afd0-9726f7ec0ba6_story.html">criticism</a> for recent Justice Department decisions that, in defending the institution of the presidency, also served Trump’s interests.

But the disclosures about previously secret Justice Department efforts under Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William P. Barr to obtain the phone records of two California Democrats, Reps. Adam B. Schiff and Eric Swalwell, raised an uncomfortable but fundamental question: Does fighting against using the justice system for political purposes <i>require</i> a new administration to expose and, if appropriate, prosecute a previous administration for the very violation the responsible newcomers are trying to avoid?

To many Democratic members of Congress, the answer is clear.

“Merrick Garland is a very good lawyer, and lawyers are process-oriented,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), who is also a member of the Intelligence Committee. “But this is about the separation of powers and issues that go to the heart of our democracy. The American people need to know everything, even if it runs afoul of traditional investigative concerns.”

Joshua Carroll

On Friday, the Justice Department took the first step toward responding to these worries. The department’s inspector general, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/trump-justice-department-democrats-congress/2021/06/11/7c2b1aa8-cace-11eb-a11b-6c6191ccd599_story.html" target=_blank>Michael Horowitz</a>, announced a probe of whether investigations of both journalists and Trump’s critics “were based upon improper considerations.”

In the meantime, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/trump-justice-department-democrats-congress/2021/06/11/7c2b1aa8-cace-11eb-a11b-6c6191ccd599_story.html">calling on</a> Sessions and Barr to testify before Durbin’s committee. They threatened subpoenas if the two former attorneys general refuse, and they called the secret records searches “a gross abuse of power and an assault on the separation of powers.” And House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said the department “has a very short window to make a clean break from the Trump era on this matter.”

May these actions mark the beginning of the end of Trump impunity.

Garland’s Democratic critics should be a bit more empathetic because he faces a genuine dilemma. A good man trying to resurrect his department’s best traditions, he wants to prove that the new sheriff in town is categorically and incontestably different from the old one.

This explains his willingness to make decisions that risk offending members of his own party. Even as he shifts the department’s policies on issues such as voting rights, he’s determined to show he’ll resist using the law or his office for narrow political purposes.

And lest anyone doubt that Garland is charting a more progressive direction for the department, he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/merrick-garland-voting-rights/2021/06/11/47906eda-cad1-11eb-81b1-34796c7393af_story.html">announced</a> a new campaign against voter suppression on Friday. It is a big deal. He is doubling the legal staff devoted to enforcing voting rights and pledged to challenge the <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-may-2021">proliferation</a> of state laws inhibiting the ability of voters to cast ballots.

But Trump is a different, and thornier, problem, because he was not like any of his predecessors. Consider his repeated norm-breaking, his indifference to legal limits on presidential power, and his contempt for the very values that Garland is trying to uphold. Actions that might have seemed reasonable when applied to just about any other previous administration seem inadequate to the quandaries created by Trump’s tenure.

“Pre-Trump, I was always of the belief that any new administration should be focused on the future, and against the idea of investigating the previous administration,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) told me. “But this is yet another norm Trump has ruined."

“Given the rampant criminality that we already know took place in the Trump administration, it would be dangerous to just look away and pretend like it didn’t happen,” Boyle continued. “To do so would only increase the likelihood that such law-breaking one day happens again.”

My hunch is that President Biden hoped that legal accountability for at least some of Trump’s abuses would be enforced by state and local prosecutors, saving his Justice Department from having to take the sorts of steps against a predecessor that friends of constitutional democracy try to avoid.

But as the flare-up over the investigation into Schiff and Swalwell made clear, the Biden administration may not have this luxury. Garland is right to do all he can to keep his department out of politics. Unfortunately, the nature of Trump’s presidency will complicate any path back to the old ways and the old rules. It’s Trump’s poisoned chalice.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-justice-department-turns-around-on-press-freedom--but-is-it-for-good/2021/06/07/5bb54b66-c7d3-11eb-a11b-6c6191ccd599_story.html" target=_blank>The Post’s View: The Justice Department turns around on press freedom — but is it for good?</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/06/fred-ryan-biden-doj-press/" target=_blank>Fred Ryan: Something appears to be ‘simply, simply wrong’ at the Biden Justice Department</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-justice-department-needs-to-explain-why-it-seized-post-reporters-phone-records/2021/05/12/b595a376-b2b9-11eb-ab43-bebddc5a0f65_story.html">The Post’s View: The Justice Department needs to explain why it seized Post reporters’ phone records</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/21/trumps-attacks-press-were-bad-what-this-federal-judge-did-was-worse/">Ruth Marcus: Trump’s attacks on the press were bad. What this federal judge did was worse.</a>

Named among the 25 most influential Washington journalists by the National Journal

Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

American Political Science Association’s Carey McWilliams Award, 1996

Empathy Award from the Volunteers of America, 2002

National Human Services Assembly’s Award for Excellence by a Member of the Media, 2004

Hillman Award for Career Achievement from the Sidney Hillman Foundation, 2011

One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet Deported (co-authored with Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann)

Why the Right Went Wrong: Conservatism – From Goldwater to Trump and Beyond

Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent

Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith & Politics After the Religious Right

Stand Up Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps, and the Politics of Revenge

They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate The Next Political Era

Why Americans Hate Politics

We Are the Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama (co-editor)

One Electorate Under God?: A Dialogue on Religion & American Politics (co-editor)

United We Serve: National Service and the Future of Citizenship (co-editor)

Sacred Places, Civic Purposes: Should Government Help Faith-Based Charity? (co-editor)

Bush v. Gore: The Court Cases and the Commentary (co-editor)

What’s God Got To Do With the American Experiment? (co-editor)

Community Works: The Revival of Civil Society in America (co-editor)

Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country

Oxford University, D.Phil.

Harvard University, BA

E.J. Dionne Jr. writes a twice-weekly column for The Washington Post. He is a professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His latest book, with Miles Rapoport, is “100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting.”

E.J. Dionne

washpost

the-washington-post

President Donald J. Trump

The Washington Post

staff

Editorials

Columns

Guest opinions

Cartoons

Submit a guest opinion

Today's Opinions newsletter

Opinions

Sign up for the Prompt 2024 newsletter for opinions on the biggest questions in politics

Washington Post Opinions

The Washington Post Opinions section features opinion articles, op-eds, editorials by the Editorial Board, global opinions and letters to the editor on the issues of the day. Offerings include columns by Washington Post opinion writers, political cartoons by editorial cartoonists Ann Telnaes and Michael de Adder and podcasts by Jonathan Capehart.

Sign up for Democracy, Refreshed, a newsletter series on how to renovate the republic.