The Dangers of a Corrupt Attorney General

William Barr politicizes the Justice Department, prioritizing the president’s political interests over impartial rule of law

Senator Susan Collins says she hopes President Trump “learned his lesson” from impeachment. At first glance, that’s a weak attempt to justify voting for acquittal, but look closer and it’s accidentally insightful. Trump clearly learned some lessons, though perhaps not the ones Collins hoped.

The president was impeached for freezing military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Explaining his vote to convict, Senator Mitt Romney called Trump’s actions “a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security and our fundamental values. Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.”

52 Republican senators disagreed and voted to acquit. But whether you think Trump’s actions were good, bad but not impeachable, or warrant removal from office, no previous president withheld legally-allocated military aid to pressure a foreign country to investigate a rival politician and his family. Whether that is Constitutional had never been put to the test. Senate acquittal says it is, creating a…