President Trump is once again weaponizing the legal system to fulfill his personal vendettas. Last year, before he could point to a single crime that he claimed she had committed, Mr. Trump called for the prosecution of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who was suing him for fraudulent business dealing. On Thursday the Justice Department secured an indictment against Ms. James, alleging bank fraud.
The story behind the indictment says it all. A federal prosecutor decided recently that there was not enough evidence to bring charges against Ms. James. In a normal administration, that would have been the end of the case. But Mr. Trump did not take no for an answer. He forced that prosecutor’s resignation and in a social media post last month demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi appoint a new prosecutor: Lindsey Halligan, a Trump ally and insurance lawyer who had never prosecuted a case.
He also demanded that Ms. Halligan pursue charges against both Ms. James and James Comey, the former director of the F.B.I. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” At Ms. Halligan’s request, a grand jury indicted Mr. Comey on Sept. 25 and then Ms. James.
The charges relate to mortgage paperwork that Ms. James filed when she bought a house in Virginia in 2020. Previous prosecutors did not find sufficient evidence that Ms. James was knowingly dishonest, and legal experts say the charges are flimsy at best. Even if the Justice Department ultimately loses in court, the legal fight will demand Ms. James’s time and money. It signals to politicians and the public that opposing the president has a cost, including the explicit threat of imprisonment.
Mr. Trump and his supporters claim that Democrats started this era of “lawfare” with their investigations into him. Yet those investigations were vastly different. Special counsels, chosen to operate more independently than typical prosecutors, carried out the federal inquiries into Mr. Trump. One special counsel during the Biden administration even investigated Joe Biden himself for his handling of classified documents. And the investigations into Mr. Trump came in response to his alarming actions, not dubious claims of mortgage problems but efforts to overturn the outcome of a presidential election. The investigations followed a potential crime, not a personal vendetta.
America is now in a dangerous period, in which the president can order investigations and indictments against his enemies. Mr. Trump is criminalizing Americans’ ability to challenge their leaders.
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The post James Comey. Letitia James. Who’s Next? appeared first on New York Times.
