Weaponizing the Justice Department
The president wants his enemies prosecuted. How far can he go?
October 2, 2025
40 min
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Episode 149 · October 2, 2025
Weaponizing the Justice Department
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The Atlantic Episodes Around October 2, 2025
Episode 321 of 364 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
40:32This episodeWeaponizing the Justice Department
Summary
President Donald Trump is using the Department of Justice to try to punish his political enemies. How much can the president bend the DOJ, an institution built on norms and ethics, to his will before it breaks? In this episode, we talk to the Atlantic staff writer Quinta Jurecic, who covers legal issues, and Benjamin Wittes, editor in chief of Lawfare, about who the Trump administration might target next, what legal strategies might work, and where the judicial system contains some surprising sources of resistance.
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