Rachel Maddow says Trump killed the Justice Department. Now she wants his attorney general impeached

You could tell before Rachel Maddow even walked onstage Sunday evening that the sold-out crowd at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C., was having a very good week.Democrats had just delivered a historic midterm drubbing to Republicans, winning control of both chambers of Congress. The audience was practically buzzing. University President Ellen Granberg noticed.“What a spectacular crowd,” she said. “Y’all are feeling good. I wonder why.”But one of the night’s biggest ovations wasn’t for an election winner.It came when Maddow, appearing with fellow MS NOW host Chris Hayes, recognized David Hearn, a former Olympic canoeist prosecuted by the Trump administration for allegedly damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.Hearn faced a felony charge after touching a loose piece of the pool’s lining. Prosecutors later acknowledged that evidence pointed to a flawed renovation, rather than vandalism, as the cause of the damage. D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman permanently dismissed the case in October.Hearn stood when Maddow called his name. Then the audience rose with him and gave him a standing ovation.It was an unexpected illustration of the question running through Maddow’s latest book: What happens when ordinary Americans find themselves confronting the power of their own government?Her new book, Department of Fate: The Promise, the Power, and the Collapse of America’s Most Consequential Institution, arrives Tuesday. The Advocate received one of a limited number of advance print copies.Three weeks earlier, in an exclusive interview with The Advocate, Maddow offered a devastating assessment of the institution that prosecuted Hearn.“It’s essentially dead and will need to be refounded from the ground up, which is what this book is about,” she says of the Justice Department.Related: Rachel Maddow sees Americans’ active resistance as key to overcoming Donald Trump’s strongman gameThe remarkable American