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MaddowBlog-JD Vance says a bit too much about White House control over the Justice Department
There was good reason to suspect Team Trump was calling the shots at DOJ. The vice president helped remove all doubt.
JD Vance says a bit too much about White House control over the Justice Department - MS NOW apple.news/AYxVP94rjR-O...
— Ms. Kevin (@kkalmes31.bsky.social) 2026-01-10T23:33:39.057Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/jd-vance-says-a-bit-too-much-about-white-house-control-over-the-justice-department
That exchange came to mind watching JD Vance speak to the White House press corps at Thursday’s briefing, where the vice president said more than he probably intended. The New York Times reported:
......Over the past half-century or so, an important institutional norm took root: The president nominates the attorney general, but for the integrity of the justice system, a firewall between the White House and Main Justice was necessary......
While Vance’s comments were striking, they are hardly the first indication that the larger thesis is true. On the contrary, Trump spent much of last year firing prosecutors who failed to follow his corrupt directives, installing unqualified partisan loyalists in positions of authority and barking orders to Attorney General Pam Bondi about which of his perceived enemies should face federal law enforcement investigation.
As The Wall Street Journal summarized in November, this is a Justice Department for which the president, not the attorney general, “calls the shots.”
Vance’s comments at the White House, in other words, added fresh weight to a broader political indictment
Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that the Justice Department would create a high-ranking position with broad authority to investigate fraud across the country that would be ‘run out of the White House’ and answer directly to himself and President Trump.
The assertion by Mr. Vance that he and Mr. Trump intended to exercise direct supervision over a senior Justice Department official was one of the administration’s most brazen efforts to date to toss out the traditional boundaries that have long existed between the White House and investigations conducted by federal law enforcement.
......Over the past half-century or so, an important institutional norm took root: The president nominates the attorney general, but for the integrity of the justice system, a firewall between the White House and Main Justice was necessary......
While Vance’s comments were striking, they are hardly the first indication that the larger thesis is true. On the contrary, Trump spent much of last year firing prosecutors who failed to follow his corrupt directives, installing unqualified partisan loyalists in positions of authority and barking orders to Attorney General Pam Bondi about which of his perceived enemies should face federal law enforcement investigation.
As The Wall Street Journal summarized in November, this is a Justice Department for which the president, not the attorney general, “calls the shots.”
Vance’s comments at the White House, in other words, added fresh weight to a broader political indictment