AUGUST 25, 2025 – Those of us who were scandalized by Trump from his earliest days as a self-promoter were plenty put-off by his “birther campaign” against President Obama. Ludicrous on its face, the effort to question Obama’s citizenship was little more than a cheap circus act conducted by an amateur clown. Little could we imagine that by using low-swinging tactics he’d wipe out his competition for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, go on to win the election, survive not one but two impeachments, and then, despite losing civil and criminal cases and being embroiled as a defendant in additional litigation over serious claims and charges, he’d go on to win a second term as president and leader of the free world. All of which was mere prelude to Trump’s frontal attack on America beginning January 20, 2025.
As far back as October 2018, shell-shocked Democrats were way back on their heels. “Where do I start?” was their best line. Now look around. In a matter of a few short months, much of America is unrecognizable. From the ICE raids to militarization of domestic law enforcement to to the denigration of decency, higher learning, and respect for the rule of law to tariff terrorism to amateur hour on the stage of international diplomacy to “in your face” grift to appointment of patently unqualified and disreputable people to the highest positions in his administration, Trump has hit the gong of America’s doom almost continuously since the minute he took office.
But today we were treated to a report that topped the multi-layer cake bearing the script, “Where do I start?” Jonathan Gross, former defense attorney for several of the convicted January 6 violent offenders, has been hired by the Department of Justice to join the “Weaponization Working Group,” an outfit within the DOJ charged with exacting revenge and retribution from perceived enemies of President Trump (see, for example, the recent raid on the home of former Trump advisor now turned Trump critic, John Bolton).
If you haven’t already, you should acquaint yourself with this character . . . or maybe not, since the information could easily set your hair on fire.
At the outset, we must acknowledge that every suspect charged with a crime is entitled to due process, including representation by competent legal counsel. That Mr. Gross represented people charged with being on the wrong side of the law shouldn’t by itself disqualify him. But everything else about the guy should disqualify him categorically.
He is the epitome of an ideologue; one given to such extreme statements as to put the master himself to shame. He compares the January 6 prosecutions to the Holocaust and fervently believes that the January 6 prosecutors should themselves be prosecuted; that the defendants should be granted reparations. “These prosecutors are evil people,” said Gross during a YouTube livestream. “They will put you on a cattle car to Auschwitz without batting an eye.” This deeply troubling comparison is doubly disturbing given that Gross is a former rabbi. I kid you not[1].
His rhetoric gets much worse as he attempts alternately to deny and justify the violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Not only caught up in various groundless conspiracy theories, he’s the active enthusiast of dangerous fringe views.
And of course, he has plenty of company in the “Weaponization Working Group.”
With this active revenge and retribution campaign sanctioned by the Department of Justice at the command of the president, we have entered a dangerous new phase of Trump’s assault on America. We must notice the portent: deployment of any skullduggery deemed necessary by the dark forces unleashed by Trump to ensure Republican control of House and Senate in the 2026 mid-term elections. Yet, the results of the mid-terms will be pro forma only. Already, Republicans have ceded power and control to the presidency. The conservative majority of the Supreme Court has aided and abetted the consolidation of presidential authority, and by this time a year from now, all meaningful opposition to the onslaught of authoritarianism will be effectively muzzled.
I wish I could be more sanguine about our prospects, but the more I see of Trump’s revenge and retribution, the more I see of democracy receding in the rearview mirror.
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© 2025 by Eric Nilsson
[1] He dropped out of his rabbinical role to attend law school. He was still a neophyte when hired by several of the January 6 defendants. During court proceedings Gross asked the judge for additional time on grounds that he’d never handled a criminal case and required more time to prepare. He later accused the prosecutors of being “junior” lawyers lacking experience.
