Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, who prosecuted ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for racketeering, accuses the Trump administration of adopting many of the same corrupt practices.

She’s the author of a new book, “The Fix: Saving America From the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government.”

McQuade says there are ways to rein-in the worst impulses of federal officials.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

Barbara McQuade: One of the lessons of this second Trump administration is how important it is to have three vigorous branches of government. I think the courts have largely done their part. But Congress has really just kind of rolled over. We’ve had the president encroach upon their power of the purse when he said he wasn’t going to fund things that they had already appropriated funds for. He violated the powers to levy taxes when he imposed tariffs. And now he’s violating the right of Congress to declare war.

So, I think we need a better system of electing our members of Congress. And there are a few ideas for doing that. One is ranked choice voting. That exists in a few parts of the country and I think has a tendency to weed out extremists.

We need to get our arms around gerrymandering. Michigan has been a real leader in this regard with our citizen-based redistricting through an independent committee. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that it is powerless to prevent political gerrymandering. They say it’s part of the political process, a political question that courts can’t stop. Of course, Justice Elena Kagan dissented from that Supreme Court opinion in the case Rucho v. Common Cause, saying it was antithetical to democracy to let somebody put their thumb on the scale like that.

But I think there are other things we need to do as well. We have seen, in my opinion, terrible abuse of the U.S. Department of Justice. The Justice Department was created by an act of Congress. For that reason, I think Congress could probably also add some conditions to how the Justice Department wields its power. They could make it much more difficult for a president to change what Justice does with just a stroke of a pen. And they could make it much harder to do that under the radar. There’s also a policy that restricts communications between the White House and the Justice Department. I think we could put some conditions on that to improve transparency, such as requiring that those actions be reported to the inspector general.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: Justice is supposed to be an independent agency. Yet you often hear people say that, depending on which kind of administration is in place, they’re gonna ask Justice officials to focus on particular issues or individuals. When you were a U.S. attorney, did you get any of that? Don’t look at these cases as much because we really want you to focus on something or someone else?

BM: What was always normal during the time I was U.S. attorney in the Obama administration, as well as during the 12 years I was an assistant U.S. attorney under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, the presidents would set broad priorities. They might say, “We are interested in pursuing violent crime,” for example. When Obama came into office, that administration was interested in pursuing mortgage fraud. But they weren’t directing you to focus on any particular case. They allowed you to follow the facts and the law. They just said, “This is a serious problem. We’re going to fund positions to pursue this particular problem and we would like you to investigate in this area.” But they were not directing you to charge any one individual. And I think that’s what’s so different about this moment, where we see the president directing the attorney general to investigate individuals by name for vague allegations of criminal behavior. That is what I think most people consider “weaponization,” as opposed to independence.

QK: It does sound very similar to “mob-like” tactics.

BM: It most certainly does. When I I first started writing this book about a year-and-a-half ago, I thought maybe it was a little out there to compare the president to a mob. But all that we’ve seen has only fulfilled my thesis that the tactics he uses are similar to the mob.

I think he learned them from Roy Cohn, the lawyer who represented Donald Trump and his father in the 1970’s, when they were sued by the Justice Department for race discrimination in housing. Roy Cohn was a lawyer for the mafia. He was a lawyer for Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare. He learned that the best defense is a good offense. Turn the tables on your accusers, admit nothing, deny everything, and accuse them of things like Trump Derangement Syndrome or “lawfare” or “fake news” if they criticize you. All of that, I think, are tactics he learned from Roy Cohn, who learned it from the mob.

President Trump has repeatedly said the U.S. Justice Department has been “weaponized” against him.

But one former Justice official argues the president is not just weaponizing the government but running it like an organized crime syndicate.

Author and law professor Barbara McQuade served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan from 2010 to 2017.

She successfully prosecuted former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on corruption charges.

Now McQuade is out with a new book, “The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government.”

She says the book stems, in part, from what she found during the Kilpatrick trial.

Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin is one of the most closely watched politicians in her party right now.

A former CIA analyst, she took three tours in Iraq alongside the military, and spent years in national security under both Republican and Democratic administrations before she ran for office. Then she won a House seat in a Trump-led district, followed by a Senate seat in a state President Trump carried. When her party needed someone to deliver the Democratic response to President Trump’s address to Congress, they picked her.

She’s been called a centrist. A pragmatist. A rising star. She’s also been called too cautious — not progressive enough, not tough enough — at a moment when many Democrats argue the party must get louder. The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent spoke with her at the Mackinac Policy Conference.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

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More stories from The Metro

President Trump is visiting Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week. Michigan lawmakers are warning him against agreeing to any deals that would allow Chinese electric vehicles into the U.S.

While they are not currently available in the states, President Trump suggested he may be open to allowing them during a visit to the Detroit Economic Club earlier this year. The EVs have become popular, low-cost sellers in Europe and are now available in Canada and Mexico.

Legislation has been introduced in Washington to ban sale of the vehicles. That includes a bill co-sponsored by Democratic Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin and Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno.

Slotkin argues that having those models on U.S. roads driving near military bases and civilian infrastructure could be a security risk.

“Taking all that data, all that video, all that mapping and sending that back,” says Slotkin. “As someone who’s from the Pentagon, that is the exact detailed information an adversarial nation loves to have in their war planning.”

While Slotkin acknowledges that major tech companies, such as Google, are already collecting people’s data, she argues those companies must follow U.S. laws when handling that information.

Another concern is the impact it could have on American manufacturers, who would stand to lose out on sales.

Republican John Moolenaar represents Michigan’s 2nd Congressional District. He warns that one of the factors keeping Chinese vehicle prices down are unethical labor practices in the country.

“Chinese companies use slave labor to undercut the fair wages of hard-working Americans,” says Moolenaar.

Lawmakers say the U.S. can’t compete with the way the Chinese government subsidizes their auto industry. They argue that creates artificially low pricing for Chinese products that  American companies can’t compete with.

In November, voters will choose a new governor.

On the Republican side, the race is shaping up around Congressman John James and businessman Perry Johnson, who’s spending heavily out of his own pocket. 

Last week, one of their competitors became the first to drop out: former House Speaker Tom Leonard. He was running what most observers considered the most substantive policy campaign in the field.

As Speaker of the House, he ended Michigan’s driver responsibility fees, he worked with former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on auto insurance reform, and he pushed to expand Michigan’s open records law to the governor’s office.

He says he left the governor’s race because it had gotten too negative — that he wasn’t willing to compromise who he was to win. It’s a striking claim. It’s also one worth examining. Leonard spoke about all that and more with The Metro‘s Robyn Vincent.

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More stories from The Metro

A group of anti-war protesters gathered at the McNamara Federal Building in downtown Detroit on Tuesday, as a deadline approached for a new wave of bombing in Iran.  The Free Press reports about 50 demonstrators showed up at the event.  

President Trump had threatened to bomb bridges and power plants in Iran, if an agreement to re-open the Strait of Hormuz wasn’t reached by 8 p.m. ET Tuesday night.  

The Pakistani government helped broker a tentative ceasefire for the next two weeks, but it’s unclear what might happen next.  The Strait has not yet been re-opened. 

Additional headlines from Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Gas prices rise again 

Gas prices in metro Detroit rose again overnight, even though there’s a ceasefire in the Iran war. 

 A gallon of regular self-serve averages $3.99 today.  That’s up three cents from Tuesday.  That price is 50 cents per gallon higher than a month ago.  

The average price statewide today is $4.07. 

NAACP calls for Trump to be removed from office 

The NAACP has called for President Trump to be removed from office under the 25^th Amendment to the Constitution.  It’s the first time the civil rights organization has ever made such a declaration.  

The 25^th Amendment allows a president to be removed from office if he or she can no longer carry out the duties of the office, in this case presumably because of physical or mental incapacity. But that’s only if the vice-president and several cabinet members agree to take that action.  

The NAACP says Trump’s erratic statements and actions call his well-being into question.  The President said on Tuesday that a “whole civilization will die” unless his demands were met.  

Detroit Congressional members Rashida Tlaib and Shri Thanedar have also independently called for Trump to be removed from office under the provisions of the 25^th Amendment. 

Black law enforcement officials meet in Detroit 

The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement (NOBLE) is holding a gathering in Detroit this week.  

The 2026 William R. Bracey CEO Symposium will provide training, networking and collaborative opportunities.  The event runs Thursday through Saturday at the MGM Grand in Detroit  

NOBLE has about 4,800 members in 60 chapters across the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, and Africa. 

Go Blue celebrations continue 

The celebrations continue in Ann Arbor in the aftermath of the University of Michigan’s victory in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. 

The Wolverines beat the University of Connecticut 69 – 63 Monday night to win the national championship – the school’s first since 1989.  

Cheers and jubilation erupted throughout Ann Arbor Monday night.  The team celebrated with fans at an event on campus Tuesday.  A team parade through Ann Arbor has been scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday. 

Pistons play in home finale tonight 

The Detroit Pistons play their final home game of the regular season tonight.  The team leads the NBA’s Eastern Conference with a record of 57 wins and 22 losses.  

The Pistons hope to have All-Star Cade Cunningham back in the line up tonight.  He’s listed as questionable for tonight’s game.  Cunningham has missed the last 11 games with a collapsed lung.  

The Pistons play the Milwaukee Bucks tonight at 7 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena. 

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

President Donald Trump gave a primetime address last night about the war in Iran. He told Americans that nearly all his objectives for the war has been met and that the war would end in the next two to three weeks, but his timeline has shifted before.

This extension of the war could mean the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed during that time. This comes as the price for a gallon of gas in the US rises to $4. The Washington Post even found that there was a 56% increase in Google searches for most fuel-efficient gas cars in the month of March.

For Detroiters looking for cheaper gas prices you can look at the Gas Buddy app. As for today, the app says that the SNK Gas Station on the corner of Michigan Avenue and South Merriman Road in Inkster is $3.29 for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel.

According to AAA, the best way to save gas is maintaining good tire pressure, driving at a moderate pace on the highway and avoiding slamming on brakes and accelerating.

Additional headlines from Thursday. April 2

Closings tomorrow 

Tomorrow is Good Friday, a Christian celebration commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary. Because of that most City of Detroit offices will be closed. Normal police, fire and water services will be provided.

Also of note tomorrow is the Detroit Tigers home opener, so be aware of street closings. The streets directly around Comerica Park with be closed off. These include Witherell between Adams and Montcalm, and Brush between Madison and Montcalm.

Sports

March Madness

Michigan is in the final four and will be going up against fellow No. 1 seed Arizona. The game will be at 8:49 p.m. at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

NBA

With a win over the Toronto Raptors yesterday, the Detroit Pistons clinched the division title—something they haven’t done in the last 18 years. And now they only need to win two more games to clinch the No. 1 seed in the East.

They play tonight against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena.

NHL

After a tough March, the Red Wings have a smaller chance of making it to the playoffs. According to reports they have a 40% chance as they look to face the Philadelphia Flyers tonight.

Game starts at 7:00 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center

Soccer

Detroit City FC beat the Flint City Bucks yesterday 1-0 in the second round of the US Cup. Their next game is against Rhode Island on April 4 at 4:00 p.m. at Bulldog Stadium.

Animation festival

Detroit’s 11th annual International Festival of Animation is going down on April 4. There will be a 93 minute mix of 19 animated shorts showcasing works from Michigan and international animators.

This event will be held at the historic Senate Theater in Detroit. 

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.