Lauro\u2019s explanation did not exactly restore confidence. \u201cIt\u2019s very clear,\u201d Lauro said. \u201cWe\u2019re not prosecuting the leading political opponent to President Trump right now.\u201d Easy there \u2014 because it\u2019s not for lack of effort<\/a>. Under Trump\u2019s DOJ, New York Attorney General Letitia James<\/a>, former FBI director James Comey<\/a>, and multiple members of Congress<\/a> have all been targeted and it is only the, ahem, rule of law preventing<\/a> the naked prosecution of political enemies.<\/p>\n Then another attendee, former New Jersey federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner, decided to skip the niceties entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to thank Mr. Lauro for admitting the emperor has no clothes \u2014 the rule of law is dead because the people in this room and the Department of Justice pissed off President Trump,\u201d Epner said.<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cWe have a president who can dictate what is done and what is not done. Thank you for admitting that the dictator in place in the White House has killed the rule of law. I really appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, people clapped. <\/p>\n Lauro responded in a pretty juvenile way. \u201cI know this has been a therapy session for you, and I hope that has helped,\u201d Lauro replied. \u201cI know this is an emotional time for you.\u201d At which point someone in the audience said the thing out loud, \u201cYou\u2019re a clown.\u201d<\/p>\n The pushback didn\u2019t just come from the audience. It also came from the stage.<\/p>\n Moderator Sandy Weinberg of Zuckerman Spaeder has known Lauro for more than four decades \u2014 they were once law partners. But familiarity did not translate into indulgence.<\/p>\n When Lauro defended the idea that the president can effectively dictate prosecutions, Weinberg cut in, \u201cI can\u2019t believe that you think that that\u2019s normal or good that one person can dictate who the Department of Justice investigates and indicts.\u201d<\/p>\n But Lauro used the Supreme Court\u2019s immunity decision as a shield, \u201cThat\u2019s what the Supreme Court said.\u201d As if it weren\u2019t already obvious enough that decision was the nadir of the Roberts Court<\/a>. <\/p>\n What the exchange laid bare is that the MAGA legal worldview isn\u2019t really about legal principles so much as grievance narratives wrapped in constitutional vocabulary. When the theory starts with \u201cDonald Trump was the most abused political figure in American history,\u201d the rest of the analysis tends to collapse into whatever conclusion best serves that premise.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s how you end up at a rule of law panel arguing that the justice system is healthier than ever when the reality \u2014 the DOJ rebranded into the president\u2019s personal law firm<\/a> and investigating his enemies on a deranged whim<\/a> \u2014 tells a different story.<\/p>\n If that\u2019s the definition of a \u201cbetter place,\u201d then yes \u2014 the rule of law is absolutely there.<\/p>\n Right next to that childhood goldfish.<\/p>\n The post The Rule Of Law Joins America\u2019s Dead Pets On The Rainbow Bridge<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n The American Bar Association recently convened a white collar crime conference and had a panel discussion about threats to the rule of law\u2026 which, at this point, is less an academic topic and more of a \u201clook around you\u201d situation. Panelists gathered to discuss what many legal observers view as a constitutional crisis playing out inside the United States Department of Justice under Attorney General Pam Bondi.<\/p>\n And then there was John Lauro.<\/p>\n Lauro, best known for representing Donald Trump in his criminal matters, arrived with a take so disconnected from the room that it may as well have been delivered via carrier pigeon from an alternate universe.<\/p>\n While other panelists described unprecedented pressure on the DOJ and the erosion of norms meant to keep prosecutions independent from political whims, Lauro had a different assessment entirely.<\/p>\n According to Lauro, the Department of Justice is actually doing great. The DOJ is \u201cin a better place\u201d than a year earlier, Lauro said, \u201cbecause I have the unique experience of representing a political figure who was probably more abused by the criminal justice system in America than any other political figure ever.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn a better place\u201d? Like the family dog you told the kids went to live on a farm? Come on, now \u2014 that\u2019s what you tell kids about a pet that\u2019s died.<\/p>\n And perhaps it was more honest than Lauro intended \u2014 because the rule of law has indeed crossed that rainbow bridge under Bondi.<\/p>\n Well, if Lauro expected polite nodding, he misread the room.<\/p>\n According to reports<\/a>, when audience member Mark Kokanovich, a former federal prosecutor in Arizona, pressed Lauro to explain how the situation could possibly have improved, the question drew applause from attendees.<\/p>\n Lauro\u2019s explanation did not exactly restore confidence. \u201cIt\u2019s very clear,\u201d Lauro said. \u201cWe\u2019re not prosecuting the leading political opponent to President Trump right now.\u201d Easy there \u2014 because it\u2019s not for lack of effort<\/a>. Under Trump\u2019s DOJ, New York Attorney General Letitia James<\/a>, former FBI director James Comey<\/a>, and multiple members of Congress<\/a> have all been targeted and it is only the, ahem, rule of law preventing<\/a> the naked prosecution of political enemies.<\/p>\n Then another attendee, former New Jersey federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner, decided to skip the niceties entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to thank Mr. Lauro for admitting the emperor has no clothes \u2014 the rule of law is dead because the people in this room and the Department of Justice pissed off President Trump,\u201d Epner said.<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cWe have a president who can dictate what is done and what is not done. Thank you for admitting that the dictator in place in the White House has killed the rule of law. I really appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, people clapped. <\/p>\n Lauro responded in a pretty juvenile way. \u201cI know this has been a therapy session for you, and I hope that has helped,\u201d Lauro replied. \u201cI know this is an emotional time for you.\u201d At which point someone in the audience said the thing out loud, \u201cYou\u2019re a clown.\u201d<\/p>\n The pushback didn\u2019t just come from the audience. It also came from the stage.<\/p>\n Moderator Sandy Weinberg of Zuckerman Spaeder has known Lauro for more than four decades \u2014 they were once law partners. But familiarity did not translate into indulgence.<\/p>\n When Lauro defended the idea that the president can effectively dictate prosecutions, Weinberg cut in, \u201cI can\u2019t believe that you think that that\u2019s normal or good that one person can dictate who the Department of Justice investigates and indicts.\u201d<\/p>\n But Lauro used the Supreme Court\u2019s immunity decision as a shield, \u201cThat\u2019s what the Supreme Court said.\u201d As if it weren\u2019t already obvious enough that decision was the nadir of the Roberts Court<\/a>. <\/p>\n What the exchange laid bare is that the MAGA legal worldview isn\u2019t really about legal principles so much as grievance narratives wrapped in constitutional vocabulary. When the theory starts with \u201cDonald Trump was the most abused political figure in American history,\u201d the rest of the analysis tends to collapse into whatever conclusion best serves that premise.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s how you end up at a rule of law panel arguing that the justice system is healthier than ever when the reality \u2014 the DOJ rebranded into the president\u2019s personal law firm<\/a> and investigating his enemies on a deranged whim<\/a> \u2014 tells a different story.<\/p>\n If that\u2019s the definition of a \u201cbetter place,\u201d then yes \u2014 the rule of law is absolutely there.<\/p>\n Right next to that childhood goldfish.<\/p>\n The post The Rule Of Law Joins America\u2019s Dead Pets On The Rainbow Bridge<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The American Bar Association recently convened a white collar crime conference and had a panel discussion about threats to the rule of law\u2026 which, at this point, is less an academic topic and more of a \u201clook around you\u201d situation. Panelists gathered to discuss what many legal observers view as a constitutional crisis playing out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":146180,"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-146179","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\/2026\/03\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-CV6fvz.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146179","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=146179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/06\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568.jpg?resize=174%2C160&ssl=1\" "\\"\\"")
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
\nKathryn 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