The push for the political persecution of anyone questioning the Trump regime continues with calls for the DOJ to head up such operations.
The efforts to crack down on free speech is continuing with the Trump regime. US supreme leader, Donald Trump, made it clear early one that anyone who says anything that hurts his feeling will face the full force of the law. The only speech that is to be tolerated is anything that praises the Trump regime and Trumps inner circle. Even before the election, the point was made clear with Trump saying that reporters should thrown in jail for publishing anything that hurts Trump’s feelings. The efforts to silence critics was then stepped up with a legal threat against the New York Times and Penguin Randomhouse.
Far right organization and architect of the Trump agenda (Project 2025), the Heritage Foundation, was also apparently planning on doxing Wikipedian’s for daring to publish anything that the organization disagrees with. Jim Jordan and shadow president, Elon Musk, also pushed for weaponizing the government to silence critics.
Since then, things just continue to get worse and worse. Dictator Trump went ahead and silenced the Associated Press for the crime of properly calling it the “Gulf of Mexico”. Elon Musk, for his part, renewed calls to jail reporters for thought crimes against the president. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is also working on a plan to work with the private sector to scour the internet for criticisms of the government and crack down on those who post those critical thoughts.
Today, we are learning that there is a push to have the Department of Justice (DOJ) to also crack down on thought crimes as well. This came courtesy of Trump hire, Ed Martin, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia. From TechDirt:
But Martin’s most concerning actions involve his apparent eagerness to serve as a personal attack dog for the administration. Soon after criticism of Musk’s DOGE initiative began mounting, Martin sent a particularly stupid letter to Musk and Steve Davis (one of Musk’s inner circle hatchet men), saying that he would “chase… to the end of the Earth to hold… accountable” anyone who “acted simply unethically” in regards to the government smashing that DOGE was doing.
Dear Steve & Elon,
Thank you for the referral of individuals and networks who appear to be stealing government property and/or threatening government employees. After your referral, as is my practice, I will begin an inquiry.
Please let me reiterate again: if people are discovered to have broken the law or even acted simply unethically, we will investigate them and we will chase them to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable. We will not rest or cease in this. No one should abuse American taxpayer dollars nor American taxpayer workers. Noone is above the law.
I am proud that we have been able to assist local law-enforcement in protecting the DOGE workers and others over the past week or so. A safe DC is a priority for President Trump and all of us.
Please keep in touch and continue to refer matters to me as soon as possible.
All the best.
Edward R. Martin, Jr
Setting aside Martin’s peculiar spelling choices, his letter represents a fundamental misunderstanding (or deliberate misuse) of the DOJ’s role and constitutional limitations. The DOJ is not supposed to be the personal Gestapo of anyone in the executive branch, though Martin clearly feels otherwise.
But Martin’s most dangerous overreach is his attempt to criminalize what he calls “simply unethical” behavior — a standard that exists nowhere in federal law and would violate basic First Amendment principles. While there are narrow exceptions for “true threats,” decades of Supreme Court precedent has carefully limited the government’s ability to punish speech.
Yes, Martin is not the president, but the real question here is whether Trump would go along with this. Honestly, there’s already a good case to be made that he would consider this whole concept of cracking down on thought crimes against him to be a fantastic idea. After all, America is already in the process of breaking down both internally and externally. Why not have various government agencies go running around rounding up anyone who would have the audacity to express their displeasure about the situation and throw them in jail for failing to praise America’s glorious leader for life? I mean, hey, if Trump can openly talk about running for a third term, pretty much anything is on the table at that point.
The breakdown of American democracy is already happening. Probably the astonishing thing about it is just how quickly things deteriorated in that country. We are getting to watch this gradual collapse in real time.
