Justice correspondent Elie Mystal discussed his recent article at The Nation, Trump Is Trying to Create His Own Personal Legal Strike Force, with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman.
As we discussed here, Roberts issued a rare statement after Trump called for impeaching Judge James Boasberg, saying that impeachment “is not an appropriate response.”
As Mystal rightfully noted during the interview, no one should be counting on the likes of John Roberts to save us from Trump:
AMY GOODMAN: Elie, thanks for coming back to Democracy Now! What is happening right now with this presidential attack on judges?
ELIE MYSTAL: We live in a fascist dictatorship. That’s what’s happening right now. That’s what it feels like. This is where we are. There is not a coming constitutional crisis; we are in the constitutional crisis right now. Because what do we have — how can we call ourselves a democracy, how can we call ourselves a nation of laws, if one man, and one man alone, Donald Trump, is able to defy the other two branches of government? That’s what we have here. And that’s what Trump promised to do, and that’s what he is, in fact, doing.
Amy, you played the clip — you mentioned John Roberts’s statement, and you rightly pointed out that it is rare for John Roberts to say anything at all. But let’s look at what the man said, and let’s look at what the man didn’t say, right? It was one of the weakest statements that he could have possibly made. He’s running around with his — you know, clutching his pearls over, like, “Don’t impeach federal judges. That’s wrong.” He didn’t say nothing about actually following the orders given by those federal judges that Roberts doesn’t want impeached, right? He didn’t say anything about Trump’s blatant violation of multiple federal court orders. He didn’t say anything about that at all.
So, again, Roberts is not your friend. Roberts is not the one coming to help us. He’s as afraid as — I believe that Roberts is as afraid of Trump as the rest of the government is. And that’s, again — I don’t know any definition of fascist dictatorship other than the one we are all experiencing right now.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Elie, in terms of the qualitative difference between the current situation and past confrontations between the executive branch and the courts, of course, back in the 1800s, there was a famous battle between Andrew Jackson and the Supreme Court over the relative sovereignty of the Native American peoples, and FDR had his conflicts with the court. But this is, as you say, multiple federal judges all around the country coming up, ruling against the Trump administration. What’s your sense of the difference between this and all prior historical battles?
ELIE MYSTAL: Well, here, the Trump administration is directly saying — you just played that ghoul Stephen Miller directly saying that the federal judges don’t have authority over this administration. Right? So, that’s number one. That’s the biggest break from the past. They’re not even pretending to acknowledge the authority of the federal judiciary to restrain or control this administration, right? So, that’s number one.
Number two, when you look at those historical examples, you’re talking, for the most part, about military funding, right? You’re talking about, you know, Andrew Jackson saying the judges made this order, now let him enforce it, as he’s committing genocide against the Native Americans. You’re talking about Teddy Roosevelt sending the Navy halfway out into the Pacific and saying, like, “Congress, I’m sure you will fund them to bring them back, won’t you?” You’re talking about the executive branch executing its large control — you know, the commander-in-chief exercising his large control over the American military. This ain’t that. Right? This isn’t a military situation.
This is Congress-appointed money for USAID, put the money back on — turn the money back on, and Trump saying, “No, I ain’t. Absolutely not.” This is a judge saying, “Turn the planes around and bring those people back,” and Trump saying, “Nope, won’t do that, either.” This is straight-up — again, this is straight-up authoritarianism. This is straight-up one man’s and one man’s whim alone controls the country. As you played, you’ve got his border czar out there literally saying he’s not going to respect judicial opinions. You’ve got Stephen Miller saying that. You’ve got Trump saying that. And that’s what’s different from the past.
If anybody thinks that there’s a equivalency here, I will just — I’d like to just remind people that I am old enough to remember when the Supreme Court unconstitutionally, in my mind, outlawed abortions. I’m old enough to remember that. I’m old enough to remember President Joe Biden not — not — going into Texas and being like, “Abortions for everybody!” Right? I remember Joe Biden respecting the Supreme Court’s ridiculous order when it came to a woman’s right to choose. And so, I would just contrast Biden’s restraint when it came to judges versus what we’re seeing from the Trump administration.
You can read the rest of the transcript here, where Mystal also discussed Trump's weaponization of the Justice Department.
