The collapse of the Justice Department's cases against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James offered a stark lesson: Turning the DOJ into an instrument of political payback requires legal competence, not just loyalty.
Why it matters: The dismissals represent a big blow to President Trump's push to exact revenge on political enemies. The Justice Department's tactics — replacing career prosecutors with inexperienced loyalists — have created a dysfunctional legal apparatus that has been unable to make its cases stick.