Democrats' New Playbook: Bury Trump Staffers in Legal Bills Until They Quit

There's a new line item in the Democratic Party's opposition strategy, and it isn't a policy proposal: legal bills.

According to a conservative policy expert tracking the pattern, Democratic-aligned investigators are running a version of the playbook federal special counsel Jack Smith used against Trump himself — except this time the targets are the junior staffers who worked in his administration, the twentysomethings and thirtysomethings who took entry-level jobs in government and now face subpoenas, depositions, and legal fees that can run into six figures, regardless of whether they did anything wrong.

That's not accountability. Accountability targets decision-makers for decisions they made. This targets anyone who shows up on an org chart, on the theory that enough financial pain eventually produces either cooperation or a chilling effect on who's willing to work in a future Republican administration at all.

Call it what it is: a tax on public service, paid only by one party's staffers. The people cheering it on this week will be the first to call it authoritarian the moment it happens to their own.