Citing 'assault on the rule of law,' federal judge appointed by Reagan resigns so he can speak out

""President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution and possible punishment," Wolf wrote in the Nov. 9 article. "This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House's assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me.""

"Wolf said he joined the U.S. Department of Justice near the end of then-President Richard Nixon's time in office as a special assistant to the deputy attorney general and later became a special assistant to then-U.S. Attorney General Edward Levi. He went on to become the chief federal prosecutor of public corruption in Massachusetts. As a federal judge, he oversaw the prosecution of two Boston mobsters, administering justice "without fear or favor," he wrote."

Senior U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf of the District of Massachusetts resigned from the federal bench, citing an assault on the rule of law by the Trump administration and a need to speak publicly without judicial restraint. He said President Donald Trump uses the law for partisan purposes, targeting adversaries while sparing friends and donors from investigation and possible punishment. Wolf expressed that such conduct contradicts his more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. He plans to join other former judges and ambassadors opposing efforts to undermine impartial administration of justice and to combat threats to democracy and the rule of law.

Read at ABA Journal