Donald Trump in the 9th Circle of Hell

Harry Litman

In Dante Alighieri’s Inferno—the first book of The Divine Comedy—the Roman poet Virgil guides the author down through circles of Hell that house increasingly serious sinners. At the very bottom, the Ninth Circle, live traitors (“i traditori”), frozen in a lake of ice for their treachery.

It was not long ago that we were asking whether the Trump presidency had ushered in a constitutional crisis. We are light years past that point now, deep into an autocratic regime that in many essentials is indistinguishable from the most tyrannical strongman states.

In the past week in particular, Trump has taken action that amounts to the consummate betrayal of the most basic principle that we are a government of laws, not of man. In these two critical measures of democratic government—apolitical justice without fear or favor, and the freedom to criticize our leaders—Trump’s betrayal of the Constitution is manifest.

The Siebert Affair: Prosecutions Without Evidence

I begin with the consummate betrayal of the ideals the Department of Justice has long stood for. As a DOJ alum, it is my principal lookout, and I have not yet written about Friday’s forced resignation of U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert.

https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/donald-trump-in-the-9th-circle-of