Opinion | Can the Justice Department Survive a Trump Wrecking Ball?

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday delivered remarks for a grim anniversary: the fourth year since the assault on the Capitol.“The public servants of the Justice Department have sought to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the Jan.

6 attack on our democracy with unrelenting integrity,” he said.What went unspoken was the obvious exception to Mr.Garland’s insistence on accountability.

The chief culprit behind the insurrection will shortly be inaugurated once again as president.After Donald Trump’s election to a second term, the Justice Department secured the dismissal of the criminal case against him, and the president-elect has said that he would pardon at least some of the more than 1,500 people who have been charged in connection with crimes that occurred on Jan.

6.The department itself, meanwhile, may soon be leveraged as a political tool against Mr.

Trump’s enemies.Over the next four years, the Justice Department as an institution will face a profound test of its commitment to the values that Mr.Garland set out in January 2024 as “enforcing the law, without fear or favor.” The equal administration of justice according to established rules, rather than the opaque whims of a tyrant, is the aspiration of law in a liberal democracy.It is worth considering why voters seem to care so little about these values, such that Mr.

Trump’s commitment to destroying the independence and integrity of law enforcement — or at least downgrading it — was not a deal-breaker for much of the electorate.Protecting the rule of law from predation requires building a democratic constituency to support it.And that, in turn, requires reflection on how it is that the Justice Department has failed to build and maintain both public understanding of that project and public trust that the department can carry it out.

In this respect, the agency’s struggles are one manifestation of a broader institutional malaise in a country gripped by an anti-ins...