Consider the following screed: “If any other President had the ability, foresight, or talents necessary, to build this ballroom, which will be one of the greatest, safest, and most secure structures of its kind anywhere in the World, there would never have been a lawsuit. But, because it is DONALD J. TRUMP, a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t … this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed. Again, it’s called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”

The rant, with its tantrum of capitalization, has all the trademarks of a typical post from the president’s Truth Social account. But that is not its source. Rather, the tirade appeared in an official legal document filed by the Department of Justice on 27 April seeking a court order that would lift legal barriers to the construction of Trump’s controversial East Wing ballroom.

Although of minor significance against the larger erosion of the nation’s commitment to the rule of law, the DoJ document provides disturbing insight into the deformation of the department into Trump’s private agency of grievance and vindictive score-settling. Having sacrificed its independence, impartiality, honesty and integrity to Trump, the department has now surrendered its voice. The facade of the DoJ’s building bears the words qui pro Domina Justitia sequitur – “who prosecutes on behalf of our Lady Justice” – but Lady Justice has been in effect replaced by “the very stable genius” whose visage hangs in front of the department’s main entrance in the form of a gigantic, multi-story banner that........

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