Post-Watergate reforms may frame DOJ decision over prosecuting Trump

The break-in at the Watergate complex 50 years ago today led to a sweeping government ethics overhaul that included a push to insulate the Department of Justice (DOJ) from politics.  

In a historical twist, this nearly half-century-old corrective may help frame the DOJ’s fraught decision over whether to criminally charge former President Trump for his effort to overturn the 2020 election results. 

For Attorney General Merrick Garland, the dilemma involves weighing competing interests: His mission to repair the DOJ’s reputation as a nonpolitical agency directly clashes with the imperative to deter a future coup attempt, where a failure to hold Trump and his allies personally accountable risks leaving American democracy vulnerable to another attack. 

“For the Department of Justice there’s a bit of a tricky situation, where restoring a sense of nonpartisanship and the nonpolitical nature of the Department of Justice dictates against charging the last president with crimes,” said Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.  

“Except that if the last president actually committed the crimes and did things in ways that are themselves a serious threat to democracy, and you don’t do anything about that, that’s itself a political decision. So they’re in a tough place.”