A federal judge appointed by former President Ronald Reagan announced that he has resigned from the bench.
Mark Wolf, appointed by Reagan in 1985, wrote in The Atlantic that he had expected to remain on the court for the rest of his life but felt compelled to step down.
Wolf wrote that he was giving up his lifetime appointment so he can speak openly against President Donald Trump, whom he accuses of undermining judicial independence and using the law to reward allies and target opponents.
“My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom. President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment,” he wrote.
“This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable,” he added.
The former U.S. District Court judge for the District of Massachusetts noted that he began his public service career at the Department of Justice in 1974, not long after the Watergate scandal that brought down then-GOP President Richard Nixon.
Wolf served under Attorney General Edward Levi during the Ford administration, crediting Levi with shaping his understanding of the rule of law and the importance of pursuing justice in a nonpartisan manner.
Wolf’s successor was chosen and nominated after he assumed senior status in 2013, and the seat was formally filled by Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, in 2014.
“I hope to be a spokesperson for embattled judges who, consistent with the code of conduct, feel they cannot speak candidly to the American people,” he told The New York Times.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson countered Wolf’s commentary in a statement to Fox News Digital, noting that judges who “want to inject their own personal agenda into the law have no place on the bench.”
“Here’s the reality: with over 20 Supreme Court victories, the Trump Administration’s policies have been consistently upheld by the Supreme Court as lawful despite an unprecedented number of legal challenges and unlawful lower court rulings,” Jackson said.
“And any other radical judges that want to complain to the press should at least have the decency to resign before doing so,” she added.
This comes just months before November’s midterms.
Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters says Republicans may outspend Democrats this election cycle, a dramatic reversal from past campaigns where Democrats often held the fundraising advantage.
Speaking on Breitbart, Gruters argued Republicans are entering the midterm cycle with significantly stronger financial positioning and unprecedented coordination across the conservative movement.
Host Mike Slater asked Gruters to put the reported $70 million Democrats spent in Virginia’s recent redistricting battle into perspective.
“How much money is that for the parties?” Slater asked.
Gruters responded by painting a bleak financial picture for Democrats.
“The DNC has minus 4 million [dollars], and it wasn’t the DNC that plowed $70 million: It was the collective,” Gruters said.
“So, if you look at the collective on the right, we may have $800 million,” he continued.
“The collective on the left may have $350 million, and when you have the court, there’s gonna be a court case that is ruled on in the next week or two, coordinated campaign limits, which will magnify that, which will allow full coordination and allow the parties to spend at the candidate rate, which is massive for us,” he said.
Gruters said the financial landscape could mark a historic break from previous election cycles.
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