The first weeks of the Trump administration have brought dramatic changes to the shape, scope, and function of the federal government.

Our new series on Democracy is taking a step back to look at big questions about the institutions, norms, and laws that have shaped the country and the challenges they face today.

Elia Shapiro is Director of Constitutional Studies at the conservative-leaning Manhattan

Institute and the author of Lawless, the Miseducation of America's elites. Thanks for being here.

Great to be with you. Well, as we sit here and speak, we've got another case that is raising

questions about the rule of law in this new Trump era. At least seven prosecutors and officials have stepped

down over the DOJ order to dismiss corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.

Danielle Sassoon, who was Manhattan's top federal prosecutor, she describes an explicit quid pro quo,

whereby the Trump DOJ would dismiss the criminal charges against Adams in exchange

for his support for President Trump's agenda. What questions does all of this raise for you?

Well, I think it's a disagreement of political judgment between different prosecutors.

The U.S. attorney disagrees with what her superiors say.

The principles are denying that there's a quid pro quo, so we don't quite have evidence

of that.

And Eric Adams, for the last year or so, has been moving in a direction to crack down on

illegal immigration anyway.

So I don't know whether he'd be behaving differently in the first

place. But ultimately, this is a judgment call. And the U.S. attorneys, whether in the Southern

District of New York, which sometimes thinks of itself as its own sovereign, sovereign district,

they sometimes call it, doesn't get to make that call at the end of the day. And if the

superiors decide that the underlying

evidence is flimsy or the prosecution itself was politically motivated and doesn't serve

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