THE PURsUIT of enemies grabs all the attention, and for good reason(不无道理). Markets were shocked to see President Donald Trump set the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Jerome Powell when he was still the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Champions of press freedom cried foul(抗议，鸣不平) last week when the department issued subpoenas(传票) to New York Times journalists for explaining the truth about Qatar’s gift of a jet to the president. But Mr Trump’s grievance agenda isn’t the half of it(远非全部，只是冰山一角).
追捕政敌吸引了所有关注，这也不无道理。当唐纳德·特朗普总统在杰罗姆·鲍威尔仍担任美联储主席时就指使司法部对其下手，市场为之震惊。上周，司法部向《纽约时报》记者发出传票，要求其说明卡塔尔赠送总统飞机的真相，新闻自由捍卫者对此表示抗议。但特朗普的报复议程只是冰山一角。
In a sign of how much he treats the department as his own personal law firm, he wants his actual lawyer to become attorney-general(司法部长（美国）). Senate hearings begin this week for Todd Blanche, who is currently the acting(代理的) attorney-general. Those on Mr Trump’s enemies list(敌人名单) are not the only ones who should be worried. The president is also inflicting(施加（伤害）) less-noticed harms on the DoJ that are as bad as the attention-grabbing ones. The damage is likely to be profound(深远的，深刻的).
种种迹象表明，他将司法部当作自己的私人律师事务所，希望让自己的私人律师担任司法部长。参议院本周开始对托德·布兰奇（现任代理司法部长）举行听证会。不仅特朗普的敌人名单上的人需要担心，总统还在对司法部造成一些不那么引人注目但同样严重的伤害。这种损害可能十分深远。
The DoJ is the government’s lawyer, but it also serves as the guardian of the law, especially since Watergate(水门事件). In 2019 Bill Barr, then Mr Trump’s pick for attorney-general, said that Americans “have to know that there are places in the government where the rule of law—not politics—holds sway(占主导地位)” and that the Department of Justice “must be such a place”. Mr Trump has no time for that. Less than halfway through his second term, he has turned the DoJ from an arm of the law into a muscular limb(强有力的工具) of the presidency.
司法部是政府的律师，但它也充当法律的守护者，尤其自水门事件以来。2019年，时任特朗普提名的司法部长比尔·巴尔表示，美国人“必须知道政府中存在法治而非政治主导的地方”，而司法部“必须成为这样一个地方”。特朗普对此毫不在意。他的第二任期才过一半，就已将司法部从法律的臂膀变成了总统的强大工具。
In the dock
受审