Trump’s Vows to Prosecute Rivals Put Rule of Law on the Ballot

Former President Donald J. Trump says he is prepared to prosecute his political enemies if he is elected this fall. Simply making those threats, legal experts said, does real damage to the rule of law.

But if he is already challenging bedrock norms about the justice system as a candidate, Mr. Trump, if he wins the presidency again, would gain immense authority to actually carry out the kinds of legal retribution he has been promoting.

The Justice Department is part of the executive branch, and he will be its boss. He will be able to tell its officials to investigate and prosecute his rivals, and Mr. Trump, who has made no secret of his desire to purge the federal bureaucracy of those found insufficiently loyal to his agenda, will be able to fire those who refuse.

While the department has traditionally had substantial independence, that is only because presidents have granted it. If the legal system resists political prosecutions in a second Trump term, it will be largely because judges and jurors reject them.

Mr. Trump’s musings on his planned prosecutions serve an immediate political purpose, highlighting his argument that his conviction in New York was the product of an effort by Democrats to keep him from being elected again and providing the red meat of prospective retribution to his base.

But they also have the effect, partly incidental and partly calculated, of undermining faith in the integrity of the criminal justice system, a development that could have profound effects in a nation where the rule of law has been foundational.