GOP former US attorneys back Biden, say Trump ‘threat to rule of law’

On Tuesday, twenty Republican former U.S. attorneys endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, citing that President Trump has threatened the rule of law, Reuters reported.

“We believe that President Trump’s leadership is a threat to the rule of law in our country,” the group wrote in a letter released to the public, according to Reuters.

All of the prosecutors, who have served under Republican presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to George W. Bush, noted that they did not agree with the president’s leadership style. They noted that they were unnerved by the president firing FBI Director James Comey in 2017 and dismissing former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to Reuters.

“He’s not just bending the norms, he’s smashing them,” said Ken Wainstein, a co-founder of the group who served as a U.S. attorney in Washington under George W. Bush, Reuters reported.

U.S. attorneys from Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, Texas and other states all signed the letter. Gregory Brower, a former U.S. attorney for Nevada, who also worked under the Trump administration as the FBI’s assistant director for congressional affairs, explained his decision in an interview, The Washington Post reported.

“I had an up-close view of how the President and the White House dealt with the Justice Department in recent years,” he said, according to the Post. “It’s clear that President Trump views the Justice Department and the FBI as his own personal law firm and investigative agency. He made that clear, privately and publicly.”

A number of high-profile Republicans have supported Biden, including former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman, former N.Y. Rep. Susan Molinari, former Trump administration official Miles Taylor, former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.