By Marshal Auron
In the Know Live Summary: National Insecurity
Our June 2025 In the Know Live interview featured DC “Super Lawyer” Mark Zaid who characterizes himself as a “legal defender” of accountability and the rule of law. Zaid focuses on national security, international law, foreign sovereign and diplomatic immunity cases, often representing “whistleblowers” and other government employees who have been wronged or who are under investigation. Most notably, he served as a lawyer for the intelligence official who exposed the Ukraine scandal leading to the first impeachment of Donald Trump. Attorney Zaid is now battling the revocation of his own security clearance by the Administration.
Zaid’s comments focused on “National INSecurity” discussing the path to political violence and authoritarianism in the US, independence of the Department of Justice, and effectiveness of the Judiciary as a guardrail of the rule of law. He also addressed how we can build bridges to reduce the political temperature in the US.
Political Violence
The discussion began by focusing on the increase in political violence in light of the recent assassination of a Minnesota state legislator and her husband. Although violence picked up in the 1950’s and 1960’s, there was a relatively peaceful half century before it escalated significantly in the last 10-15 years. This overlapped with the first Trump administration and has been even more pronounced since. Death threats of political figures have become more common, especially from far-right groups. Attorney Zaid, for example, has received multiple death threats, some of which have been investigated by the FBI. He attributed this to the ease of obtaining weapons and the ability of the discontented to leverage technology like the internet to mobilize hatred. Some of this may even be the product of overseas creators of chaos, which should be explored more deeply. It’s clear that this has led to true dislike that folks have of those with differing political views and a desire to avoid cooperating in addressing policy challenges.
Patrimonialism- Trump Policy: No Friends or Enemies, Just Business Interests
Examples of this go back to the first Trump Administration as the President used the Trump Hotel (Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue in DC) to profit from foreign dignitaries staying to gain favor with Trump. This has increased in the second term as ethical lines are being crossed and benefits have accrued to Trump family and associate businesses domestically and overseas (e.g. trademarks, cellular company, cryptocurrency).
Zaid pointed to a specific form of authoritarianism called patrimonialism, where leaders engage in government to use power to gain personal financial benefit. Our trade relations with China and perhaps even how we deal with Iran may reflect this since Trump has financial interests in China and the Middle East. Ideas like turning Gaza into a luxurious resort where Trump would play a role also underscores this.
Path to Authoritarianism in the US
Authoritarianism in America was once unthinkable…but no longer….we always thought of Hitler and Stalin in those terms, but not American leaders. Authoritarianism is not necessarily murderous. Zaid noted that Trump’s efforts at government control are authoritarian in nature: the attacks on his opponents and purging of those in oversight roles. It doesn’t matter if these people were appointed in his first term, are career people, or are Republicans. The fact is they are not loyal to Donald Trump, so they are enemies. But thankfully, we don’t have the secret police dragging folks off. Rather we have chaos in government as thousands and thousands of employees have left government service. This centralizes power in the President. There have been appeals against these actions in the courts and for now the courts are holding steadfast and the rule of law is being upheld. The question is how far is it going to slip from here: Zaid’s definition of a constitutional crisis is when the Administration fails to adhere to the judicial (particularly Supreme Court) rulings. (Editorial note: some commentators may have a broader definition, such as when current events and the political process push the country into a place where the existing constitutional framework is incapable of resolving the problem, Zaid’s reference reflects a specific current example of this).
When asked if this move to authoritarianism is reversible by the opposition, Zaid replied that we are not close to the bottom. He holds that there is going to be more pain, especially among Trump supporters, before we can reverse our course. We're starting to see it, “You can look in your newspapers or online every day where someone who voted for Trump. Their spouse got deported or their business got raided because they employ undocumented aliens and they never expected that they would be the ones who would suffer.” So far, many Americans have not been affected and few are really paying attention to what’s happening. The path may be reversible and we may get stronger, but we may need to go through significantly more political and economic pain before we recover.
Weaponization of the Department of Justice
The DOJ has been weaponized against perceived political enemies, with unprecedented actions like placing Trump's personal lawyers and diehard loyalists in senior positions. Career prosecutors are quitting, with many retiring prematurely. Trump’s Attorney General has denied the fairness of the 2020 election. One of Zaid’s cases involves thousands of FBI personnel who worked on the January 6th case and have filed lawsuits against the Administration who has threatened to publicly reveal their identities. Attorney Zaid was also concerned that depriving individuals of due process and sending them to prisons in places like El Salvador could actually be applied to American citizens. He’s particularly concerned that the Administration is going as close to (or over) the line as possible to capture power. He pointed to attacks on lawyers who have opposed Trump. Lawyers are often an early target of authoritarian regimes, since they uphold the rule of law and protect us from authoritarianism.
Loss of Security Clearance
The Trump Administration withdrew the security clearance for Attorney Zaid’s firm, making it challenging to support certain clients. Zaid disagrees with the law firms who pledged millions of dollars of contributions to fund pro bono work for Trump on certain conservative issues and ostensibly retained their security clearances. Not that there’s anything wrong with pro bono work: Zaid does it all the time for causes he believes in. The law firms who have contributed funds to Trump’s causes are being forced to do it, further undermining the legal profession and the rule of law.
Supreme Court vs Lower Courts
The discussion turned to the Supreme Court. Although the conservative justices are in the majority, predicting their rulings are challenging. Zaid indicated that most Supreme Court decisions are nearly unified, with often the high-profile politically-charged cases showing clear divisions. Conservative justices like Roberts, Barrett, and Gorsuch might rule against the Trump administration in certain cases. Zaid is particularly concerned about a case that is working its way through the courts over the next few years that he is litigating. It’s about the power of the Presidency under Article 2 of the Constitution to fire anyone the President wants to without due process. There are statutes and regulations in place that govern the termination and discipline of Federal employees and ensure due process. Despite this Trump has fired many senior government officials outright threatening their legal rights.
Politicization of the Military
In response to a question on the current strength of the US Military, Zaid pointed out that while the US remains one of the strongest military powers, there are concerns about politicization and treatment of personnel, particularly regarding transgender service members being labeled as national security threats. He pointed to the recent speech by the President at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg that included service members who are Trump supporters cheering at the President’s derisive comments: clear signs of politicization of the military.
Reducing Political Temperature
The discussion included a somewhat hopeful question related to how we reduce the difference of opinion between the right and the left. Attorney Zaid noted that we need to restart personal conversations. Online discourse often leads to misunderstandings, while focusing on face-to-face interactions can be useful to determine if there are areas of common understanding and concern. Historical examples show how members of Congress from different parties used to maintain friendships despite policy disagreements. The current environment of attacking those who show any bipartisan cooperation needs to change if there is hope for reconciliation. There needs to be greater discourse.
Tools to Track Legal Challenges
Attorney Zaid concluded by providing some links to trackers that are useful for monitoring:
● Litigation Tracker: Legal Challenges to Trump Administration Actions
