'It’s Gotten Much Worse': Experts Warn Trump Poses Unprecedented Threats to the Legal System

American voters are increasingly criticizing President Donald Trump’s leadership during his second term over his alleged ties to late s*x offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But things appear even grimmer behind the scenes, as legal experts have shared their thoughts on a recent survey showing that the nation’s trust in the Trump administration's institutional integrity has eroded.

The legal experts asserted that the president has been using the Department of Justice (DOJ) to bend the law to his advantage, referring to his scathing attacks against judges who have ruled against him or the Republican Party.

On June 1, during an episode of the Legal AF podcast, attorney Shant Karnikian shared that the rule of law in the United States has plummeted over the last decade.

The legal expert cited findings from a recent survey conducted by Bright Line Watch and the UCLA School of Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project.

The data revealed that over 94% of federal judges, elite lawyers, and law professors concurred that the Trump administration's second term poses a greater threat to the legal system than his first term.

Karnikian explained this was a “professional assessment based on a survey" and not merely a "political opinion.”

Karnikian called the overwhelming agreement "the funniest statistic" because experts have long speculated about how much worse institutional norms could become.

“Well, here we are. It's got that much worse,” he remarked.

Co-host and legal attorney Brian Kabateck said he was unsure how many of the findings were surprising enough to make people exclaim, "Oh my g-d, I never knew that."

He added that it made sense to him that the public was less concerned than practicing lawyers and judges.

However, he emphasized that the data should heighten public awareness about the current state of affairs.

“These actions that the Trump administration is doing are largely illegal,” Kabateck said.

Kabateck pointed out that a large number of lawsuits filed by state attorneys general against the administration's policies have been overwhelmingly successful.

He later argued in the video that the Supreme Court has simultaneously aided Trump by issuing rulings on its “shadow docket,” where the general public does not see the judges' decisions on specific cases.

“People recognize that the shadow docket is a very dangerous precedent in the United States,” Karnikian said, adding, Highlighting another data point, he noted, “91% say it's more threatening than the Biden presidency. I mean, that’s not a big shocker."

Furthermore, Karnikian said that the erosion of institutional trust is obvious to many people.

He added that a mere 30 percent of the respondents believe that the Supreme Court is capable of making an “impartial decision” when it involves the current administration.

The attorney called it a “terrifying number," arguing it highlights a deep crisis of legitimacy given that perceived partiality has been a problem for quite some time.

He pointed out another statistic in which a segment of surveyed judges stated that they were afraid of retaliation from the government if they ruled against it.

Kabateck concluded by sharing that a high percentage of elite lawyers said that the decisions taken in their firms are increasingly engineered to stay on the good books of the current administration.

“Law firms with sometimes thousands and thousands of lawyers and partners, that the decisions that are being made are being made specifically because they don't want to p*** off the Trump administration,” Kabateck said.