Likutei Moharan 20:9/ליקוטי מוהר"ן כ׳:ט׳

19. And there are times when even just subduing them is not within the power of these angels; so weak are they because of the inferior [level] of the holiness. The only power they have is to stir the nations against the wicked people who give a bad report about the land.

2This is how it now is in <this bitter> exile. We do not have the power to punish the wicked on our own; only through <gentile law>, as in (Habakkuk 1:4), “The wicked besets the righteous, therefore, the judgment goes out crooked.” For the wicked man surrounds the tzaddik, and we on our own do not have the power to repel him except through <gentile courts>—to have him judged according to their laws and to receive from them the power to oppress the wicked.

3And know! occasionally it is God’s plan that the wicked besets the tzaddik and the tzaddik doesn’t have the ability to repel him except through <the gentile courts>. Through the strength of the judgment, the judgment of holiness, which had fallen between the forces of evil, emerges. <And> the tzaddik takes it out from between the evil forces, so that the judgment goes out from its crookedness. For it became crooked [while] between the forces of evil, as in (Psalms 147:20), “Judgments—they know them not.” But now, it goes out of its crookedness and is straightened out. And this is the meaning of: “Therefore, the judgment goes out crooked”—<i.e., from the crookedness which was there before>.