From Rule of Law to Rule by Fear

Trump’s not just undermining the courts; he’s weaponizing the Justice Department to take them down, judge by judge, until only loyalty remains.

Guest article by Michael Cohen

They told us the Constitution would hold. That the courts would be the grown-ups in the room. That no matter how insane things got at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there’d always be a judge somewhere to slam the brakes.

Cute theory.

Turns out, the brakes are off. The steering wheel’s been ripped out. And the guy behind the wheel is doing donuts in the Rose Garden while the Justice Department hands him a map to the cliff’s edge.

Now, let me be clear: Trump didn’t stumble into this. He isn’t accidentally authoritarian. This is all by design. From day one of his return to power, the mission has been the same: consolidate control, sideline opposition, and make sure the law serves the man, not the other way around. And now, the final frontier: break the courts.

Phase one was neutering Congress. Done. Mission accomplished. The House is a MAGA fan club with subpoena power. The Senate? A retirement home for ambitionless, feckless cowards. With that threat neutralized, phase two is underway: go after the judiciary like it’s a petty political rival. Because to Trump, that’s all it is.

And right now, public enemy number one is Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in D.C. His crime? Ruling against Trump’s mass-deportation scheme that would've shipped Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador—a facility that makes Rikers look like a Courtyard Marriott. Boasberg ruled it violated due process, which, last I checked, was still a thing in this country.

But that kind of constitutional clarity doesn’t fly in the Trumpiverse. So what happens next? A formal misconduct complaint against Boasberg, filed by Trump’s personal legal cudgel and Attorney General Pam Bondi.

And don’t let the title fool you; Bondi isn’t the nation's top law enforcement officer. She’s Trump’s Minister of Loyalty, draped in the flag and flanked by lawyers who think the Federalist Papers are a liberal hoax.

The complaint alleges that Boasberg made inappropriate remarks at a closed-door conference, warning fellow judges that Trump’s administration was ignoring court rulings and that a constitutional crisis was already in motion. Imagine that. A judge warning others about authoritarian overreach. Apparently, that's now grounds for discipline.

It actually gets dumber. Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle—whose résumé reads like a LinkedIn profile filtered through an OANN comment section—claims Boasberg tried to "influence" Chief Justice Roberts and other judges with his remarks. Right. Because the man who ruled against the White House is secretly pulling the strings at SCOTUS. It’s as ridiculous as it is sinister—and that’s the playbook.

The Bondi-MAGA DOJ isn’t arguing law anymore. They’re arguing vengeance. Judges who step out of line aren’t just wrong; they’re unethical. Dangerous. Subject to removal. Or worse.

Judge Ana Reyes is another example. She scolded the DOJ for its shoddy legal work, and what happened? Whisper campaigns, scrutiny, veiled threats. In Maryland, an entire bench of federal judges was sued for pausing deportations. In New Jersey, the DOJ tried to bypass Senate tradition to install a Trump loyalist as U.S. Attorney. It's not law; it’s lawfare.

What we're witnessing is a quiet coup on the courts. You don’t need tanks in the streets. You just need enough compliant judges and a few well-placed threats. And voilà—judicial independence becomes judicial obedience.

Even the Supreme Court is starting to flinch. Boasberg’s ruling was vacated on procedural grounds—not because it was wrong on substance, but because the administration dragged its feet just long enough to render it “moot.” That's a fancy legal way of saying “we ignored it until we didn’t have to.”

The high court isn’t fighting back. It’s looking the other way. And when the last court that could stop the king chooses to bow instead, we’re not living in a democracy anymore. We’re just cosplaying one.

And here’s where it gets terrifying: this campaign is working. Inside the federal judiciary, fear is palpable. Judges are watching Boasberg and thinking, “Do I want to be next?” Not because they’ve done anything wrong—but because doing their job might get them investigated, smeared, or worse.

That’s the point. It’s not about punishing one judge. It’s about chilling all of them. If a well-respected chief judge can be targeted for speaking the truth, no one’s safe. And when judges become afraid to rule, the law becomes a suggestion.

This isn’t democracy functioning. This is democracy flailing in a straitjacket.

We were told the courts would save us. That they’d be the last line. But if Bondi and company keep this up, that line’s going to vanish like an ethics complaint in the Trump cabinet.

And here’s the bitter irony: for all the talk about law and order, this is pure lawlessness. Institutional vandalism dressed up in red, white, and blue. And we’re all supposed to clap along because it’s done with a badge and a gavel.

Boasberg won’t be the last judge to face the wrath of Trump’s DOJ. He’s just the opening act. The real show—the real purge—is coming. And unless the judiciary finds its spine, the next ruling that matters may not come from a court at all.

It’ll come from a king.

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