President Trump appears to order Pam Bondi to prosecute political opponents

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social in which he appeared to order U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute political opponents. Trump addressed Bondi and appeared to take issue with criticism against his administration for failing to take action on various investigations, which he said is “killing our reputation and credibility.” Politicians from across the aisle including Republican Senator Ted Cruz were quick to denounce the move saying it is “unconstitutional and deeply immoral to jail or silence your opponents” and to use the Dept of Justice to do so.

Mark Kokanovich who is an Attorney at Ballard Spahr joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the President’s order.

“It strikes the foundation of the ideals of the justice department,” Kokanovich said, “…we aren’t supposed to be going after political opponents in criminal prosecutions, that goes against the justice manual.”

Kokanovich mentioned how this relates to Justice Jackson, an attorney general for the United States in 1940. Jackson gave a speech that Kokanovich teaches at Arizona State University in his white collar prosecution course.

“He gave a wonderful speech that prosecutors across the country look to,” Kokanovich explained, “…that says that you shouldn’t be prosecuting people for political favor, or based on partisan goals…prosecutors have the most power in our society to do injustice and to do justice…and it takes discretion to do that.”

Kokanovich explained how United State Attorney General, Pam Bondi’s initial memo to the public is contradictory with what is occurring today. She stated, ‘we shouldn’t be weaponizing the justice department…we shouldn’t base prosecutions on political motives.’ However, the president has called for exactly that, which has led to lots of bi-partisan backlash.

“He (Trump) was prosecuted…but there’s a difference between the way he’s going about it, and the way prior administrations have gone about it,” Kokanovich said.

Kokanovich explained that prior administrations have not completely gotten it right either. He emphasized that there is a lot of disagreement about whether and how one should ever prosecute a political opponent, when they are the party in power.

“…but the prior administration prosecuted people who were republicans and democrats,” Kokanovich explained.