Citing a pressing need to “speak out” against the Trump administration , a federal judge in Boston stepped down from the bench last week to fight what he called an “existential threat to democracy and the rule of law.”

“My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom,” senior US District Judge Mark L. Wolf explained in an essay in The Atlantic Sunday .

The now-retired Reagan appointee expressed his frustration with President Donald Trump’s use of the law “for partisan purposes,” such as targeting adversaries while shielding friends and donors.

“This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench,” Wolf, 78, wrote. “The White House’s assa

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