From the article: Trump’s presidency has put the fundamental institutions of the country at risk. We have been forced to consider whether the president may have received unlawful assistance from a foreign power during the election campaign and whether he obstructed the investigation of that issue by firing FBI Director James Comey.

After his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, properly recused himself from the Russia probe (on the grounds that his role as a political surrogate for the Trump campaign and his meeting with the then-Russian ambassador during the campaign might reasonably raise questions about his impartiality), the president publicly castigated him for doing so.

When you combine this with the president’s assertion that he can pardon himself, and with his statement that “I have the absolute right to do what I want with the Justice Department,” not to mention his multiple public denunciations characterizing even Republican-appointed federal judges as run-of-the-mill political actors — it is clear that foundational American institutions are taking a beating: the FBI, the Justice Department, and, yes, even the courts.