Barbara McQuade, Columnist

How to Safeguard the DOJ Against the Next Trump

February 15, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC

Barbara McQuade is a professor at the University of Michigan Law school, a former US attorney and author of the forthcoming book, "The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government."

Can the damage she and her boss have done to a storied institution be repaired?
Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images North America

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The Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to the Department of Justice, dismantling the traditional barrier between prosecutorial independence and partisan politics.

Career prosecutors have retired or resigned rather than compromise their integrity. Judges have complained about DOJ lawyers’ shoddy work, accused them of defying court orders, and engaging in unprofessional conduct.