Transcript: Trump Seethes at Reflecting Pool Mess as Damning Leaks Hit

Now what we see is the use of the judgment fund to pay people like Michael Flynn and Carter Page. I think one of the things they could do is what they used to do, and that is to fund judgments on an individual basis. And if they find that the Justice Department is acting in bad faith, they could decline to provide those funds. So I think between oversight and the power of the purse, they have a lot of power there to rein in the Department of Justice. And of course, they also have the power of impeachment, which includes the power to impeach the attorney general.

Sargent: One last thought. A Democratic House and Senate—if Democrats win both, which is hard but not impossible—couldn’t a Democratic House and Senate essentially p*** legislation that does things like the bills that Democrats p***ed during the first Trump administration, though they didn’t get anywhere, of course, because Trump was president?

Some of these bills did things like really build a real firewall between DOJ and the White House. Presumably a Democratic House and Senate could p*** that kind of thing, challenge Trump to veto it, and then have a big political fight over these reforms, which I think would poll very well. What do you think of that idea?

McQuade: I do. After Watergate, there was a whole slew of reforms that came into play. Some was legislation, some was norms at the Justice Department. And I think there is great public appetite for that once again. And so it may be a different landscape now, after the Supreme Court has shown interest and support for this idea of the unitary executive, about what separation-of-powers legislation will be permitted. But I think it’s worth the fight to really test those boundaries.