Carol Leonnig

Yeah.

The hit the department has taken, as we learned in the book, is

It's just not recoverable in the near term because two things.

You brought up at the beginning, you've lost centuries worth of experience and you can't replace them with, you know, a lot of Lindsay Halligan's and expect, speaking of the...

former personal assistant and insurance lawyer that Donald Trump installed in the U.S.

Attorney's Office in Virginia in order to indict James Comey and Letitia James, career prosecutors wouldn't do it.

It's impossible to recover and expect that those folks are going to get replaced appropriately if you're inserting these lieutenants who, you know, salute to the commander and say, sure, we'll charge whoever you want us to charge.

The second thing that's hard to recover from is the credibility gap.

If you go the Merrick Garland route, you can see some dangers ahead of not holding people to account for their actions.

The Department of Justice's mantra is without fear or favor.

Like, who cares who it is?

Who cares how important they are?

Who cares what their party is?

We charge based on the evidence and the public interest.

But if you go the hardcore route, I can see some dangers, too, because where's the credibility for the DOJ?

Is everybody going to assume that criminal prosecutions have been directed or manipulated by the party in power?

Can I just take a beat and say, yes, that's true, and stay tuned.

There's more.

I'd rather break news at my actual news organization.

Well, you gave me the bull.