Since the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, we’ve been treated to denouncements of Republicans attacking the integrity of the FBI.
Trump and his allies have claimed without evidence that the raid was a witchhunt driven by a politicized Justice Department to target someone who is seen as the current president’s chief political opponent. That, of course, leaves out the months-long effort to retrieve classified documents that preceded the raid, and allegations that Trump World attempted to obstruct the government’s effort to retrieve the documents.
Attacking the FBI and Justice Department without evidence of wrongdoing dangerously undermines the institutions and the rule of law. And those who called it out were right to do so.
But now that something has gone in Trump’s favor in this case, some liberals have decided that it’s actually OK to attack the justice system baselessly.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon allowed for a third party, a special master, to review the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago and temporarily put a hold on investigators using those documents in their investigation.
Elie Mystal, a regular MSNBC guest and justice correspondent for The Nation, unloaded on Cannon with no basis other than the fact that she was appointed by Trump.
When asked how Cannon could rule in favor of appointing a special master to review the documents, Mystal said, “Because she’s biased and corrupt.”
“I don’t know what to tell everybody anymore. I’ve been saying this since he took office. When you allow Republicans to control the courts, you get nothing,” he continued. “Trump judges do not believe in the rule of law. They do not believe in precedent. They do not believe in facts. They do not believe in logic. They just believe in whatever’s going to help Trump. And they’ve proven it again, and again, and again.”
He added, “So when I say that you cannot trust Trump judges, I don’t know what more evidence you need for that fact.”
There was a total of zero evidence in that rant.
However, Mystal concluded by claiming the media needs to “stop pretending that these Trump judges are like the rest of the judicial system. They have to stop carrying water for them and start calling them out as they are: corrupt leave behind gifts from the Trump administration to destroy the rule of law in America.”
Watch the video below:
Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) on the federal judge who appointed a special master to review materials the FBI took from Mar-a-Lago: "She’s biassed and corrupt." pic.twitter.com/eD2SZTaDX7
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 5, 2022
MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan tweeted a similar sentiment as he wrote, “Perhaps it helps if the person you’re in front of in court was someone *you* appointed to the bench, I guess. If only all Americans had this option.”
Perhaps it helps if the person you’re in front of in court was someone *you* appointed to the bench, I guess. If only all Americans had this option. https://t.co/QZhtxsTNZG
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) September 5, 2022
These attacks are just as gross and wrong as the Republicans’ attacks on the FBI, and they have no evidence.
In fact, you could argue that there is more evidence to disprove their claims — all you have to do is look at the 2020 election to blow a giant hole in Mystal’s claim.
Trump appointed judges shut down his efforts to overturn the results of the election. If these were people who blanketly did not believe in the rule of law or facts, then the election would have been overturned by judges appointed by Trump, and yet that did not happen.
So his claim that these judges appointed by the former president — without any other evidence of nefarious and corrupt behavior — is laughably ludicrous but also just plain dangerous.
To assert — without evidence — that just because the judge was appointed by a certain president they are corrupt and do not believe in the rule of law and their rulings are therefore corrupt and intended to benefit that president is reckless and further undermines trust in our justice system.
