Federal Judge Resigns to Sound the Alarm on Trump

A veteran federal judge has resigned his post, warning in a public essay of what he calls an "existential threat to democracy" posed by President Trump. Mark L. Wolf, appointed to the federal bench in Massachusetts by Ronald Reagan and a Justice Department veteran dating back to the Ford administration, broke precedent by stepping down to speak out, arguing that Trump has weaponized the law for political ends—targeting adversaries while shielding allies from scrutiny, the New York Times reports. Wolf, 78, says his resignation allows him to voice not only his own concerns but also those of colleagues who feel constrained by judicial ethics rules.

His essay appeared in the Atlantic two days after the court announced his resignation as a senior-status judge, a position he held after stepping down from active service in 2014. Wolf's public warning is one of the sharpest rebukes of Trump's approach to presidential power to come from within the federal judiciary. He contends that Trump's use of the law goes beyond the abuses of the Nixon era, describing it as routine rather than episodic and overt rather than covert. Wolf referenced Trump's social media calls for investigations into political opponents, noting that some, including James Comey and Letitia James, were later indicted.

Wolf, who presided over high-profile cases, including the trial of Boston mobster Whitey Bulger, says he hopes to become a spokesperson for judges who cannot speak publicly. The code of conduct bars active federal judges from making political statements, and some lawmakers have called for investigations into judges who have criticized the administration. The White House dismissed Wolf's concerns, saying judges with personal agendas should resign, a sentiment echoed by Trump-aligned legal figures. But the conservative judge says in his essay, which Axios refers to as "scathing," that the administration's actions run "contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench."