{"id":132054,"date":"2025-08-26T14:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/26\/former-trump-white-house-attorney-preaches-justifiable-paranoia-for-critics-of-the-president\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T14:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T22:41:13","slug":"former-trump-white-house-attorney-preaches-justifiable-paranoia-for-critics-of-the-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/26\/former-trump-white-house-attorney-preaches-justifiable-paranoia-for-critics-of-the-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Trump White House Attorney Preaches \u2018Justifiable Paranoia\u2019 For Critics Of The President"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week<\/a>, the Trump administration broke irony when it raided the home and office of John Bolton, former national security advisor and current critic of Donald Trump, for \u2014 wait for it \u2014 suspected wrongful possession of classified documents. The law enforcement action was largely panned as retribution for Bolton\u2019s 2020 book \u201cThe Room Where It Happened,\u201d which is sharply critical of Trump\u2019s lack of knowledge on all things foreign policy-related.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now former White House attorney \u2014 and current critic of Trump<\/a> \u2014 Ty Cobb<\/a> is talking about the \u201cjustifiable paranoia\u201d of those that dare to call out the president. Appearing on NPR<\/a>, Cobb told host Steve Inskeep that when he first learned of the Bolton raid he \u201cwent down and locked my door.\u201d The deadpan quip is played for a laugh, but there\u2019s a dark truth there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think anybody that\u2019s critical of the president has justifiable paranoia at this stage of the game,\u201d Cobb noted. And it\u2019s a sentiment echoed by others \u2014 Norm Eisen and Andrew Warren wrote\u00a0for MSNBC:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThe early-morning knock on Bolton\u2019s door should be a wake-up call to every American. This escalation in the Trump administration\u2019s use of law enforcement to target political opposition marks a dangerous new front for American authoritarianism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cobb softened his stance a bit, saying not to \u201coverreact\u201d to the raid, and noting that he doesn\u2019t believe that Bolton will ultimately be indicated.<\/p>\n

But despite Cobb\u2019s optimism on Bolton\u2019s legal fate, it feels undeniable that retribution was part of the motivation and that\u2019s unusual \u2014 and deeply disturbing. \u201cThere\u2019s certainly an abandonment of traditional norms at the Justice Department in going back and doing this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cobb continued:<\/p>\n

\n

This is no longer a Justice Department, you know, with independent thinkers, you know, acting ethically. This \u2013 these people are so totally devoted to Trump and his campaign of vengeance. And, you know, they made that clear when they welcomed him into the Great Hall and Pam Bondi, you know, declared the fealty of the department to the president as opposed to the Constitution, which is actually what their oath is for.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is definitely a new \u2014 and troubling \u2014 frontier. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Former Trump White House Attorney Preaches \u2018Justifiable Paranoia\u2019 For Critics Of The President<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week<\/a>, the Trump administration broke irony when it raided the home and office of John Bolton, former national security advisor and current critic of Donald Trump, for \u2014 wait for it \u2014 suspected wrongful possession of classified documents. The law enforcement action was largely panned as retribution for Bolton\u2019s 2020 book \u201cThe Room Where It Happened,\u201d which is sharply critical of Trump\u2019s lack of knowledge on all things foreign policy-related.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now former White House attorney \u2014 and current critic of Trump<\/a> \u2014 Ty Cobb<\/a> is talking about the \u201cjustifiable paranoia\u201d of those that dare to call out the president. Appearing on NPR<\/a>, Cobb told host Steve Inskeep that when he first learned of the Bolton raid he \u201cwent down and locked my door.\u201d The deadpan quip is played for a laugh, but there\u2019s a dark truth there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think anybody that\u2019s critical of the president has justifiable paranoia at this stage of the game,\u201d Cobb noted. And it\u2019s a sentiment echoed by others \u2014 Norm Eisen and Andrew Warren wrote\u00a0for MSNBC:<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThe early-morning knock on Bolton\u2019s door should be a wake-up call to every American. This escalation in the Trump administration\u2019s use of law enforcement to target political opposition marks a dangerous new front for American authoritarianism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cobb softened his stance a bit, saying not to \u201coverreact\u201d to the raid, and noting that he doesn\u2019t believe that Bolton will ultimately be indicated.<\/p>\n

But despite Cobb\u2019s optimism on Bolton\u2019s legal fate, it feels undeniable that retribution was part of the motivation and that\u2019s unusual \u2014 and deeply disturbing. \u201cThere\u2019s certainly an abandonment of traditional norms at the Justice Department in going back and doing this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cobb continued:<\/p>\n

\n

This is no longer a Justice Department, you know, with independent thinkers, you know, acting ethically. This \u2013 these people are so totally devoted to Trump and his campaign of vengeance. And, you know, they made that clear when they welcomed him into the Great Hall and Pam Bondi, you know, declared the fealty of the department to the president as opposed to the Constitution, which is actually what their oath is for.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is definitely a new \u2014 and troubling \u2014 frontier. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Former Trump White House Attorney Preaches \u2018Justifiable Paranoia\u2019 For Critics Of The President<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, the Trump administration broke irony when it raided the home and office of John Bolton, former national security advisor and current critic of Donald Trump, for \u2014 wait for it \u2014 suspected wrongful possession of classified documents. The law enforcement action was largely panned as retribution for Bolton\u2019s 2020 book \u201cThe Room Where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":132055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-j7QfVm.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}