'Silence, for me, is now intolerable': Federal judge in Boston steps down to speak out against Trump

"My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom," senior US District Judge Mark L. Wolf explained in an essay in The AtlanticSunday. The now-retired Reagan appointee expressed his frustration with President Donald Trump's use of the law "for partisan purposes," such as targeting adversaries while shielding friends and donors. "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," Wolf, 78, wrote."

"The White House's assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable."

"Reflecting on a public service career guided by truth and justice, Wolf said he ultimately began to chafe against the limits of his role as Trump and his allies "dismantled so much of what I dedicated my life to.""

Senior U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf resigned from the bench to speak publicly against what he described as an existential threat to democracy and the rule of law. Wolf said he could no longer be constrained by judicial limits on public speech after witnessing the administration's use of law for partisan purposes, targeting adversaries while shielding friends and donors. Wolf noted his decades-long career prosecuting corruption and presiding over major cases, and he said the erosion of legal norms contradicted everything he had upheld. His resignation did not create a vacancy for presidential appointment.

Read at Boston.com