In the Press

Publicly discussing pending investigations could also hinder the prosecution itself, such as by tainting a jury pool, former prosecutors said.

“It definitely raises the question: if they are continually running afoul of those things, what is the true purpose here, and what is the true legitimacy of these cases?” said Kristy Parker, special counsel at Protect Democracy and a former prosecutor with the department’s civil rights division.

“I think you’ve got a situation where our government is weaponizing its own powers in a manner that is inconsistent with our constitutional framework,” said Kristy Parker, who prosecuted threatening speech claims as a Justice Department lawyer and is now with the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy.

“If any private company who processes and has access to states’ sensitive data complies with these kinds of federal demands, that is a dangerous and very slippery slope,” said Nicole Schneidman, an attorney and technology policy strategist with Protect Democracy, which describes itself as “a cross-ideological nonprofit group” dedicated to defeating authoritarian threats and protecting freedoms.

“It would validate a tactic where government pressure on vendors effectively allows the federal government access to states’ data while making an end run around states,” Schneidman said.

Yet lost in this saga has been the basic reason we don’t want a MAGA-brained January 6-er in such a crucial law enforcement role in the first place. We talked to former prosecutor Kristy Parker, counsel at Protect Democracy. She explains why this position is so critical to the legal order, why Martin has no business in it, and why she has cautious optimism that Trump’s assault on the rule of law might ultimately get repelled.

Democracy Forward, Altshuler Berzon LLP, Protect Democracy, Public Rights Project and State Democracy Defenders Fund are representing the unions in the case. They want a judge to preserve the status quo while the case moves ahead.

“President Trump has neither constitutional authority nor Congressional authorization to effectuate a government-wide reorganization and direct massive federal employee layoffs in service of that reorganization, either across or within agencies, and any attempt to implement such radical restructuring is entirely [beyond his legal authority],” attorneys wrote in the union’s request for a TRO.

In just a few months, Americans have seen how much harm can be done by an unconstrained president who no longer needs the electorate to achieve his aims. Lawful residents of the United States “disappeared” off the streets and whisked away to foreign prisons without due process. Private law firms and universities coerced into surrendering their historic independence. Unpredictable tariffs roiling markets, raising prices, and wreaking havoc on the global economy.