There’s always a temptation to celebrate when President Donald Trump does something sensible, like firing his Attorney General, Pam Bondi—until you ask yourself why he’s done it.

Not since John Mitchell, who was Richard Nixon’s attorney general, has anyone done more to tarnish that office and damage the Justice Department than has Bondi.

But Trump didn’t fire her because she turned the Justice Department into a cesspool of corruption. Just the opposite. He fired her because she didn’t hide the corruption well enough. She failed to achieve all the corrupt goals he set for her: She didn’t make the Epstein files go away, didn’t fully prosecute his enemies, and wasn’t convincing enough in congressional hearings and on television in advocating for Trump.

Trump has been furious that the Epstein files continue to be a political liability. He’s upset that his MAGA base, and congressional Republicans who are responsive to it, doesn’t believe that the truth has yet been told about what the Justice Department knows about Epstein. He’s angry that so many continue to think there’s a continuing cover-up—which there surely is.

Trump doesn’t simply demand total loyalty from his lackeys. He wants them to convincingly act on the media and before Congress as if they’re motivated by sincere conviction rather than mere loyalty to Trump.

But he doesn’t want the cover lifted. To the contrary—he wants it slammed shut so tightly that........

© Common Dreams