close allies like roger stone and michael flynn, both of whom trump eventually pardoned. there have been numerous other reports of laughs and ethics within the trump era department of justice, and allegations of decisions that were more than just lapses. and in a book published last year, jeffrey berman, a former u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, alleged that the justice department pressured's office to pursue cases against trump critics, and to scrub references to quote, individual one, meaning donald trump in a charging document. but this sort of abuse and weaponization of the government is far from unprecedented, in the 1950s, the fbi under j edgar hoover launched co intel pro, a series of operations secretly collected information about american citizens, and harassed those considered to be critics of the government, including civil rights leader dr. martin luther king junior. and perhaps the closest parallel to the current moment