Ran into this article recently, and it felt worth sharing here.
I take no credit for having written any of what is written below. This is by Robert B. Hubbell, and I hope that I am not breaking any laws by reposting or republishing it here. But it seemed important and needed sharing (and the link to the article is below).
Here it is:
Another informed observer confirming the coup attempt(s), this one addressing other actions as well as last night's grab of Congress's powers of funding.
Robert Hubbell writes:
Trump has broken faith with the Constitution. He is no longer operating within the pale of the law. On Monday, January 27, Trump dropped all pretense of being a “president” within the meaning of Article II of the US Constitution and began wielding power for his own benefit and without regard for constitutional restrictions.
In two lawless actions on Monday, the acting US Attorney for DC announced an internal investigation into DOJ prosecutors who investigated and indicted January 6 insurrectionists. And the Acting Attorney General fired more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on the investigations and indictments of Donald Trump.
It is clear that Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to seek vengeance against career prosecutors who acted with integrity and professionalism in prosecuting Trump and those who assaulted the Capitol on January 6.
The notion of any president directing the DOJ to make prosecutorial judgments has been unthinkable under post-Watergate legal norms. However, the notion of a president directing prosecutorial decisions of the DOJ to further his own political interest is antithetical to core principles of the Constitution. The president’s swears an oath to “faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States”—no part of which involves elevating his personal interests above those of the nation.
In a separate action taken late Monday evening, Trump ordered a freeze on all federal grants and loans (by way of a memo from the acting head of the OMB). See WSJ, White House Orders Pause of Federal Financial Assistance Programs. (Per the WSJ, the order directs all agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”)
Trump's order from the OMB violates the Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Trump doesn’t care. Neither do congressional Republicans. And the ruse that the pauses are “temporary” does nothing to diminish the fact that impoundments are illegal and unconstitutional.
The impoundment of appropriated funds is a constitutional crisis on a fast track to the Supreme Court. For an excellent discussion, see Steve Vladeck, One First (Substack), The Impoundment Crisis of 2025. (I will return to this topic in later editions of this newsletter, but Vladeck covers the subject in detail.)
While some presidents have secretly used the FBI, IRS, and DOJ to investigate their political foes, no president in the history of our nation has publicly ordered the DOJ to investigate his perceived political enemies, much less fire them.
It is time for the institutions fighting for democracy to drop the niceties and begin calling Trump for what he is: a dictator. Many institutions are still treating Trump as though he is a “normal” president, albeit one subject to making impulsive, ignorant statements. Criticizing his actions is not enough. The story of his first week is not that “Trump has shaken things up,” or that he is “flooding the zone.” It is that Trump has begun to ignore the law at whim.
It is also time for the legal profession to speak out. The members of the bar who are facilitating lawless actions must be subject to public condemnation and formal reproval. The leaders of the bar have a special obligation to speak out. They must serve notice on attorneys everywhere that there will be reputational, professional, and licensing repercussions for taking positions that violate the Constitution or deliberately flout the law. The revolving door at Big Law must be closed to attorneys who enable dictatorial actions antithetical to the Constitution and the rule of law.
Trump is unable to act like a dictator unilaterally. He needs the consent, acquiescence, and apathy of enough people to frustrate the normal operation of constitutional and legal checks and balances.
We must not grant that assistance to Trump. We must resist. We must say in plain language that he is acting like a dictator who holds himself above the law. Whether he gets away with the audacious gambit is up to the people from whom all constitutional power flows. Let’s make our voices heard!
Trump goes full dictator January 28, 2025 Robert B. Hubbell Jan 28, 2025
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/trump-goes-full-dictator
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