Poll Says Trump Weaponizes DOJ: Media Forgets Other Weaponizations
While 52 percent of Americans express concern over Trump’s alleged weaponization of the DOJ, The Hill's breathless coverage somehow omits the fact that using government power against political opponents is hardly a Trump original. For example, the FBI's COINTELPRO initiative targeted civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., and more recently, the Espionage Act has been used to prosecute
whistleblowers who exposed government misconduct, not just foreign spies. The framing implies this is a novel Republican innovation when, in fact, it's a bipartisan tradition. One might wonder if the concern stems from the 'weaponization' itself, or simply from who the current targets are. Where was the outrage when administrations used intelligence agencies to spy on environmental groups, or when
the Obama administration prosecuted more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all previous presidencies combined? It seems some weaponizations are more weaponized than others, particularly when they don't involve the usual suspects.