Newsweek Discovers DOJ 'Compliance Tools' Only Exist for Certain Presidents
Newsweek warns of the Department of Justice becoming a 'compliance tool' under Donald Trump, painting a grim picture of presidential interference. This hand-wringing over executive power is certainly valid, but one might wonder where this concern was when previous administrations, well, also used the DOJ as a political cudgel. It’s almost as if the mainstream suddenly remembers 'checks and
balances' only when the 'wrong' person is holding the pen. Perhaps Newsweek also conveniently forgot instances like the numerous political prosecutions under various administrations, or the wholesale expansion of surveillance powers (e.g., PATRIOT Act, 2001) that transformed the DOJ into something far more 'compliant' to executive will than anything Trump cooked up. The outrage feels less like
principle and more like partisan theater. (Original article in Newsweek: 'The DOJ as Trump’s Compliance Tool | Perspective', 2026, though the cited article metadata points to a much older publication date).