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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/us/politics/trump-justice-department-judges-courts.html?unlocked_article_code=1.b08.QOye.-4wXZqynme0w&smid=url-share

The dissolution of these traditional bonds of trust — known in legal circles as the presumption of regularity — goes well beyond judges’ use of blunt words — “egregious,” “brazen,” “lawless” — to describe the various parts of Mr. Trump’s power-grabbing policy agenda.

Ultimately, legal experts say, the actions that caused such doubts among judges about the department and those who represent it could have a more systemic effect and erode the healthy functioning of the courts.

... That situation underscored how the courts can work successfully only if people outside of government — jurors and witnesses, for instance — believe that the Justice Department is acting honestly, said Daniel C. Richman, a law professor at Columbia who recently wrote in The New York Times about the “credibility crisis” the department is facing.

“When the government loses credibility, you see it clearly in the reactions of other players in the legal system,” Mr. Richman said. “That’s the road we’re on for now — unless something changes soon.”