POLITICO Nightly: The Democrats enabling Trump’s DOJ demolition

By Charlie Mahtesian Mayor Eric Adams speaks during the State of the City address at the Apollo Theater on January 09, 2025 in New York City. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images NOT SO OPPOSITION PARTY — President Donald Trump’s claims about a politically weaponized justice system have been embraced and amplified recently by some unexpected sources: some of the best-known names in the Democratic Party. It’s a stunning, though perhaps not totally surprising turn — and it might help boost the president’s attempts to remake the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), New York City Mayor Eric Adams, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and even former President Joe Biden are among those who have suggested — and in some cases, flat-out asserted — that they or their families have been victims of politically motivated federal prosecutors, bolstering Trump’s claim that the American justice system is so broken and corrupt that it must be blown up. Politicians ensnared by the feds have long claimed to be victims of selective prosecution — almost no one cops to their crimes and willingly does a stint at Allenwood or another correctional facility. Trump, however, is the first modern pol to successfully rally an entire national movement around the idea that he is a victim, relentlessly pursued by rotten prosecutors unleashed by his partisan political enemies. It’s his justification for overhauling the DOJ and the FBI, purging the top ranks of federal law enforcement and appointing loyalists for attorney general and FBI director. While Democrats insist Trump’s moves have threatened public safety, national security and the rule of law , their arguments have struggled to slow Trump’s progress in remaking federal law enforcement. It’s no wonder, since so many high-profile Democrats have been validating Trump’s underlying premise. Biden’s explanation for pardoning his son — after insisting that he would not — was essentially the same one that Trump has been making, only without the partisan vitriol and self-pity: Hunter was “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.” “[R]aw politics has infected this process,” the former president said in a statement at the time, “and it led to a miscarriage of justice.” In his final report on the Hunter Biden investigation, DOJ special counsel David Weiss made clear his views on the corrosive effect of Biden's criticism, calling the former president’s statement “gratuitous and wrong.” “Other presidents have pardoned family members, but in doing so, none have taken the occasion as an opportunity to malign the public servants at the Department of Justice based solely on false accusations,” Weiss wrote . “These prosecutions were the culmination of thorough, impartial investigations, not partisan politics. Eight judges across numerous courts have rejected claims that they were the result of selective or vindictive motives. Calling those rulings into question and injecting partisanship into the independent administration of the law undermines the very foundation of what makes America's justice system fair and equitable. It erodes public confidence in an institution that is essential to preserving the rule of law.” Two weeks ago, Menendez, the former New Jersey Democratic powerhouse, took a different tack than Biden. The senator who once wondered aloud whether Trump could be compromised by the Russian government explicitly asserted, “President Trump was right.” MENENDEZ WAS CAUGHT WITH BARS OF GOLD & A FREE VEHICLE, AMONG OTHER THINGS! THIS WAS ACTUALLY HIS 2ND CORRUPTION TRIAL. “This process is political, and it’s corrupted to the core,” Menendez said outside the New York federal courthouse after being sentenced to 11 years. “I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system.” BLAGOJEVICH WAS CONVICTED OF BRIBERY AMONG OTHER THINGS PRIOR TO PRESIDENT BIDEN'S ELECTION, WAS IMPEACHED BY ILLINOIS SENATORS. PREVIOUSLY A CONTESTANT ON TRUMPS TV SHOW "THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE", HAD A CONTENTIOUS RELATIONSHIP WITH EVERYONE  Then there is Rod Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor of one of the biggest and bluest states in the country. After a jury found him guilty on corruption charges, Blagojevich served time in prison until Trump commuted his sentence in 2020. Blagojevich subsequently became a vigorous Trump supporter, claiming that the weaponization of the DOJ actually began with the prosecution against him . The former Democratic governor vouched for Trump’s central argument: "Biden was happy to weaponize the Department Justice against Trump.” Blagojevich’s support hasn’t been lost on Trump, who gave him a full pardon yesterday amid speculation that he might also be appointed as the U.S. ambassador to Serbia. Trump’s war against the DOJ, it turns out, has opened his eyes to the political value of Democratic politicians with grievances against federal prosecutors. Last year, Trump came to the support of Cuellar, the indicted South Texas Democratic congressman who has suggested he’s been targeted by the DOJ for political reasons — in his instance, because he is a conservative Democrat. Trump rallied to his cause. “Biden just Indicted Henry Cuellar because the Respected Democrat Congressman wouldn’t play Crooked Joe’s Open Border game. He was for Border Control, so they said, “Let’s use the FBI and DOJ to take him out!” This is the way they operate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social . Cuellar surely noticed yesterday’s bombshell out of New York, where the Trump Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to drop their case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, clearing him of all corruption charges in advance of his reelection bid this year. Adams has been transparent in his attempts to seek help from the Trump administration — he went to Mar-a-Lago to visit Trump, secured a last-minute invitation to his inauguration and has refused to publicly criticize the president. And the Justice Department’s memo asking the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to seek a dismissal of the charges included language suggesting Adams’ legal trouble could hurt his ability to enact Trump’s immigration agenda . For Trump, it was all political upside. It boosted the fortunes of a rare Democratic ally in the biggest city in America — one who could prove useful in the administration’s immigration crackdown — while also reinforcing central MAGA tenets. Trump spelled out his political calculus back in October before a gathering of New York’s political, business and religious leaders. “I know what it’s like to be persecuted by the DOJ for speaking out against open borders,” Trump said. “We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmahtesian@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @PoliticoCharlie .   We’ve re-imagined and expanded our Inside Congress newsletter to give you unmatched reporting on Capitol Hill politics and policy -- and we'll get it to your inbox even earlier. Subscribe today .     What'd I Miss? ****CENSORSHIP OF HEALTH CARE INFORMATION**** — Judge orders Trump admin to restore removed health agency webpages: A federal judge ordered federal health agencies today to restore pages they removed from their websites last month to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order on “gender ideology and extremism,” saying the decision to pull them down could be detrimental to public health. The decision by U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, came after a testy Monday afternoon hearing in which he sharply questioned the administration about doctors’ claims that the removal of the pages damaged their ability to care for patients. — Vance to meet with Zelenskyy Friday: Vice President JD Vance will meet Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy , according to a person familiar with his plans, as the White House pushes to quickly end the war in Ukraine while negotiating a deal to continue providing aid to the U.S. ally. Vance and Zelenskyy will be in Munich for a security conference stacked with world leaders. Vance said last week he hoped to focus his first foreign trip as vice president on bringing the conflict to a close. Vance will be joined in Munich by Keith Kellogg, the special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, who will then visit Ukraine, Trump said Monday. EXPECT SPINELESS MAGA GOP TO GENUFLECT! — Trump says he may consider vote of Congress for DOGE, ‘always’ follows judicial rulings: President Donald Trump said today that he might consider congressional approval for his Department of Government Efficiency’s spending cuts and would abide by court decisions while the so-called department’s chief, Elon Musk, pushed back on characterizations that his slashing of the government constituted a “hostile takeover.” Musk, donning a black MAGA hat, stood with his young son behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as Trump signed an executive order, which reportedly instructs agencies to significantly cull the federal workforce, further empowering DOGE in its unprecedented razing of the bureaucracy. ***TRUMP'S CHILDISH TANTRUM!***** — Associated Press blocked from Oval Office after not using ‘Gulf of America’: The White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from attending President Donald Trump’s executive order signing Tuesday afternoon, the news organization said, after it continued to refer to the “Gulf of Mexico” instead of adjusting to reflect the administration’s stance that the body of water should now be called the “Gulf of America.” Earlier on Tuesday, the White House warned the AP — known for its stylebook that many newsrooms follow — that if it did not change its guidance on the body of water, its on-call reporter would be blocked from attending the event, the wire service said. excerpt:  “It is alarming that the Trump administration would punish AP for its independent journalism,” AP executive editor Julie Pace said in a statement. “Limiting our access to the Oval Office based on the content of AP’s speech not only severely impedes the public’s access to independent news, it plainly violates the First Amendment.” The AP said last month that it would continue to refer to the “Gulf of Mexico” because of the centuries-long history behind that name and the fact that Mexico and other international organizations did not recognize the change. In a statement following the announcement from Pace, White House Correspondents’ Association President Eugene Daniels said the White House “cannot dictate how news organizations report the news, nor should it penalize working journalists because it is unhappy with their editors’ decisions,” adding that “the move by the administration to bar a reporter from The Associated Press from an official event open to news coverage today is unacceptable.” Daniels, who is also Playbook chief correspondent for POLITICO, added: “The WHCA stands with The Associated Press and calls on the administration to immediately change course.” The AP said it would still acknowledge Trump’s executive order — and did change its style to reflect Trump renaming North America’s tallest peak to Mount McKinley. THE NEW ADMINISTRATION KEEP ON SLASHING — The Office of Personnel Management has formally submitted draft regulations that would make it easier for agencies to fire career government officials who push back against presidential orders. The move laid out in documents obtained by POLITICO today is the latest step toward rekindling a plan initiated at the tail end of President Donald Trump’s first term to eliminate civil service protection for federal employees who play a role in policy development or advocacy. That effort to designate them in a new category that serves at the will of the president was scrapped after Trump left office. ***NOTE THE ESCALATING COST OF DEPORTATIONS!**** TACIT APPROVAL — Senate Republicans believe they have President Donald Trump’s blessing as they pursue a two-bill strategy for passing his domestic legislative agenda. Trump has repeatedly said that he prefers “one big, beautiful bill,” but Senate Republicans have been privately checking that he is OK with them moving forward with two bills — one that addresses the border, energy and defense spending quickly, while a second gets into more complicated tax cuts. Today, OMB Director Russ Vought and Border Czar Tom Homan also said behind closed doors that they need $175 billion in additional border money quickly, further boosting Senate Republicans' confidence in moving immediately. “I talked to President Trump over the weekend. He wants to get results,” Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters after the closed-door lunch. AROUND THE WORLD A drawn portrait of Marc Fogel, who has been detained in Russia since August 2021, hangs on rails outside of the White House during a demonstration organized by his family, July 15, 2023, in Washington. | Stephanie Scarbrough/AP FOGEL RELEASE SECURED — The Trump administration announced today that it negotiated a deal with Russia to free longtime American detainee Marc Fogel , who is now on his way back to the United States. In a statement, national security adviser Mike Waltz said that President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and other advisers “negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.” Fogel, 66, was a teacher at an English language school in Moscow when he was detained at a Russian airport in 2021 on charges that he was in possession of a small amount of marijuana, which was prescribed to him in the United States for medical purposes. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2022. It is unclear who or what the U.S. gave up in exchange for Fogel. Russia has used detained Americans as bargaining chips in the past to secure the release of top Kremlin allies and high-profile Russian nationals detained abroad. NOT FOR US — The United Kingdom and United States failed to sign the final communiqué at the AI Action Summit in France , published today after a meeting of world leaders. POLITICO first reported on Monday morning that Britain was unlikely to sign the statement after Trump administration officials expressed reservations over language calling for “inclusive and sustainable” AI. Talks continued until late that night and resumed first thing this morning, but a list of signatories to the final statement published later today didn’t include the U.K. or U.S. Over 70 governments, international bodies and research institutes did sign the statement, including the European Union, China and India. The AI Action Summit, co-hosted with India, has been an investment showcase for France, with French President Emmanuel Macron announcing more than $100 billion of investment. LET’S WRAP THINGS UP — The strategy for Ukraine is quietly shifting in Europe to match the changing tone of the United States — from a promise of unyielding support to an effort to bring Kyiv to the bargaining table with a strong hand. That new strategy will play out most clearly this week at the Munich Security Conference, one of the biggest gatherings of defense leaders in the world. It’s a dramatic departure from the Biden era, when the meeting reinforced the U.S. and its allies had Ukraine’s back for, as former President Joe Biden often said, “as long as it takes.” And while Europe still insists it will support the country three years into Russia’s invasion, the conversations this weekend could signal the direction of the embattled country’s future. “How [Europeans] position themselves… to be at the table rather than being on the menu,” said Camille Grand, a former NATO assistant secretary general. “That’s the whole debate.” Nightly Number 2,000 The number of sick Palestinian children from Gaza that Jordan’s King Abdullah II told President Donald Trump that his country would accept in a meeting today, while punting the question of broader resettlement to Egypt. RADAR SWEEP BIRD BOOST — Pioneering aviators have always looked to the skies — and to birds in particular — for inspiration. Otto Lilienthal and the Wright brothers, for example, attempted to imitate birds’ flight patterns in their aircraft designs. And now, airlines and space companies are looking at how birds fly again , for a different reason: they want to conserve energy. In particular, aircraft innovators believe that birds’ V formation flight, which helps reduce stress on them, can be instructive. If two large aircrafts fly in a similar pattern, separated by about 1,000 feet, it could drive at least a five percent reduction in CO2 emissions per trip, experts believe. And Delta plans to put this into practice later this year. For the BBC, Martine Paris examines the continued impact of nature on airline travel. Parting Image On this date in 1990: Nelson Mandela is released from prison in South Africa after 27 years. Mandela and his wife Winnie are pictured here two days later in a welcoming rally in Soweto. | AP   A new era in Washington calls for sharper insights. Get faster policy scoops, more congressional coverage, and a re-imagined newsletter under the leadership of Jack Blanchard. Subscribe to our Playbook Newsletter today .       Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   Follow us