Former federal Judge J. Michael Luttig condemned in recent days the consistent pattern of former President Donald Trump’s attacks on judges and judicial systems across the United States, which Trump generally characterizes when interacting with them as part of some secretive plot to undermine him politically.
There is, in reality, no real-world evidence of political animus or an electoral conspiracy driving Trump’s four criminal cases and wide-ranging civil proceedings.
“The Nation is witnessing the determined delegitimization of both its Federal and State judiciaries and the systematic dismantling of its system of justice and Rule of Law by a single man – the former President of the United States,” Luttig declared. The former judge condemned the arguable ease with which Trump has made these attacks so far, avoiding serious consequences that could easily be a possibility for other defendants in the U.S.
“It is the responsibility of the Supreme Court of the United States in the first instance to protect the federal courts, the federal judges, and all participants in the justice system from the reprehensible spectacle of the former president’s inexcusable, threatening attacks,” Luttig, who’s already spoken out against Trump, said.
Extending his grave concern about systematic impacts in the judiciary from Trump’s incessant antagonism and refusal to accept the process, Luttig called it the responsibility of the country at large “to protect its courts and judges, its Constitution, its Rule of Law, and America’s Democracy from vicious attack, threat, undermine, and deliberate delegitimization at the hands of anyone so determined.”
Trump is continuing to single out a daughter to the judge in his New York City criminal case for public attacks, looping the woman — who is not involved in the case — into his familiar accusations of bias. Prosecutors posited in recent filings that a gag order recently imposed on Trump in the case does actually block commentary of the sort Trump’s using against the judge’s daughter, though its precise language doesn’t include the judge’s family.
