“The overriding story is the effort to turn the Justice Department into a political tool and make it an instrument for pursuing the president’s political enemies,” said David Sklansky, a professor at Stanford Law School.

But Sklansky, the Stanford Law professor, noted that Nixon tended to operate through back channels. He avoided any public calls to prosecute his rivals.

“He believed that, if he called for that openly, he would’ve been pilloried not just by Democrats but by Republicans,” Sklansky said. “And that was undoubtedly true at the time.”

But Sklansky believes the second Trump administration has abandoned such discretion in favour of a public display of power over the Justice Department.

“It’s completely apparent and all but explicit that the Justice Department is choosing its targets on political grounds,” Sklansky said.

Legal experts like Sklansky fear the result will ultimately be a partisan system that craters public trust in the judicial process.

“The low repute of the judicial system today — not just the Justice Department but the courts as well — is something new. It’s a departure from anything I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Sklansky said.