Hi, Bill Crystal here. I just recorded a conversation live with Joyce Vance, the excellent legal

scholar and commentator, former U.S. attorney in Birmingham, Alabama, about the current crisis,

really, I would say, in the Justice Department, the firing of the U.S. attorney here in North

Virginia, a replacement by a Trump loyalist, the attempt to now, according to Trump's orders, prosecute the

former FBI director, James Comey, really a remarkable collapse of the principle that prosecutions,

especially criminal prosecutions, are not supposed to be launched for political reasons.

Joyce explains what has happened and why this is

really a major moment in the fight for the rule of law here in America. I'm Bill Crystal, Joyce Vance.

We're here on a Substack Live, which will also be up later on, obviously, on YouTube, to discuss

this week's developments, or more than just this week, at the Department of Justice, where Joyce obviously served and was an assistant U.S. attorney, a very important job for, was it for the whole Obama administration? I forgot. You know, I was an assistant U.S. attorney for 18 years, and then I spent eight years as Obama's U.S. attorney. I bet U.S. attorney, yeah. I never know.

I never can get that assistant U.S. attorney.

The U.S. There's a lot of inside baseball with the names. The U.S. attorney, but you spent eight full years, yeah. So one of the big stories, so really thanks. I'm glad we're able to do this, and let's have you and I have both written a bit about this. you much more inside knowledge and more learning about the law. So let's talk about what's

happened, particularly this week in terms of the Eastern District

of Virginia, and then more broadly what's going on with the rule of law in the Justice Department

and I guess in the country.

So why don't you explain what happened this week?

I think most people don't quite understand the relations of all these, as you can see, I don't quite, of all these parts of the Justice Department.

You know, it's confusing, Bill, and I actually wrote a column earlier this week. I was concerned there's so much news going on. It all feels so important. This felt like a story that might just sort of slide below people's radar screens because it wasn't clear how

important it was on its face, but the interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia,

that means a guy who was already in the office, but whom Donald Trump had nominated to be the

permanent U.S. attorney, so he's serving before he gets confirmed. He was fired by Donald Trump.

His great sin was he refused to bring criminal prosecutions that Trump wanted.

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