In a healthier political environment, June 4, 2025, would be recognized as one of the most important days of Donald Trump’s presidency. It was on that day that the Republican incumbent took a step no American president had ever before taken: He directed the Department of Justice to launch a wide-ranging investigation into Joe Biden, based on Republican conspiracy theories about the Democrat’s mental acuity.

This was the first time in the nation’s history that an incumbent American president publicly ordered a federal probe into his predecessor.....

Whatever happened to this presidential directive? Nine months later, we appear to have an answer. The New York Times reported:

The Justice Department, after calls by President Trump to investigate former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., scrutinized whether Mr. Biden and his aides broke the law in using the autopen to sign presidential documents, but was ultimately unable to move forward with making a case, according to three people briefed on the matter.

.......University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney and an MS NOW legal analyst, described this as “a disgusting abuse of power” — an assessment that is more than fair, given the circumstances.

Making matters worse is the degree to which these abuses have become the new norm since Trump returned to power. It was, after all, just last week when the public learned that Trump’s Justice Department also tried and failed to secure felony indictments against six members of Congress (two Democratic senators and four Democratic House members) because they appeared in a video urging military service members to disregard illegal orders.

The move didn’t turn out well — regular citizens on a grand jury rejected the ridiculous gambit — but the fact that such an effort was made against a group of military and intelligence veterans who’d done nothing wrong was similarly indefensible.....

What’s more, the apparent demise of that case didn’t negate the fact that Team Trump is still pursuing cases against a lengthy list of Democrats, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff of California, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.....

Soon after, Main Justice unfurled a giant banner featuring the president’s face on its facade. The move removed a pretense that no one took seriously anyway. As The Wall Street Journal summarized in November, this is a Justice Department in which the president, not the attorney general, “calls the shots.”

The criminal investigation into Biden is powerful evidence in support of the thesis, though it’s a big piece of a larger puzzle.

It’s been a rough start to the year for the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington. Jeanine Pirro, the Fox News host turned top federal prosecutor, has endured a string of embarrassing setbacks since January. According to the most recent reports, Pirro’s office shelved its effort to indict former President Joe Biden for his use of an autopen to sign executive actions while in office. Her office reportedly couldn’t assemble anything even resembling a criminal case.

The autopen inquiry, such as it was, was just the latest collapsed effort from Pirro to punish President Donald Trump’s enemies. Her failures are a sign that even as the Justice Department has fallen under the White House’s control, the law still doesn’t automatically bend to his will. And Trump’s vendettas remain stalled out. The limits to his power have become a little clearer......

The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia has jurisdiction over federal crimes committed within Washington, making it an obvious choice of venue for this fishing expedition. Pirro’s predecessor, acting U.S. attorney Ed Martin, opened an investigation into Biden last spring, according to The New York Times, and it continued after Pirro was confirmed to her role in August. But the probe reportedly suffered, the Times reports, because:

Investigators were never quite clear what crime, if any, had been committed by the Biden administration’s use of the autopen.

It was also unclear whether investigators should focus their attention on the actions of Mr. Biden’s aides or on Mr. Biden himself, given that the United States Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling in 2024, granted broad immunity to presidents for most acts undertaken as part of their official duties.

In recent months, prosecutors determined that despite Mr. Trump’s desire to seek vengeance against Mr. Biden and his aides, there was no credible case to bring, the people said. The prosecutors never brought a potential indictment before a grand jury.

It’s hard to tell whether the autopen case never making it to a grand jury makes it more or less of an embarrassment than other recent fiascos. Last month, federal prosecutors from Pirro’s office failed to persuade a grand jury to indict six Democratic members of Congress on charges of seditious conspiracy. Their alleged crime: filming a video in which lawmakers reminded members of the military and intelligence community that they have an obligation not to follow illegal orders. Speaking of those lawmakers and their video, Trump said in an interview last year that “in the old days, if you said a thing like that, that was punishable by death.” The grand jury’s refusal to indict, though, is a good sign its members disagree.....

It is for the best that Pirro’s efforts have languished. It is good that the justice system continues to rely on facts and evidence. But her failure to deliver on carrying out Trump’s vindictive agenda can’t overshadow the fact that she felt the need to try at all — and will likely try again.