President Donald Trump called for “justice” in several social media posts over the weekend while seemingly urging his attorney general to go after three of his political opponents, whom he called “guilty as hell.”
Trump’s post referenced New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI director James Comey and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff as possible prosecutorial targets.
Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,” directed to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Trump went on to criticize Erik Siebert, who he just ousted as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, calling him a “Woke RINO, who was never going to do his job.”
And the president touted his pick to replace Siebert, Lindsey Halligan, as “a really good lawyer.”
We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Trump said, apparently referencing James, Comey and Schiff.
Another simply said, “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
And a praised Bondi as “careful” and “smart” but said she needed a “tough prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, like my recommendation, Lindsey Halligan, to get things moving.”
Trump that Bondi’s job isn’t on the line if James isn’t indicted.
And he told a reporter that he isn’t making threats to his team if they don’t prosecute James.
No, I don’t do that. I don’t do that,” Trump said Sunday. “I mean, I look at the facts, like everybody else. You read the facts, and to me, she looks terrible. She looks like she’s very guilty. But that’s going to be up to the DOJ.”
James previously of more than $450 million against Trump in a civil fraud case, in which she argued that the Trump Organization inflated the value of its properties.
Now, Trump allies, including U.S. Federal Housing Director William Pulte, . Pulte sent a criminal referral in April to Bondi and the Justice Department with his allegations.
But Siebert had investigated the allegations for months without bringing charges.
Comey, who began his tenure as FBI director under former President Barack Obama, drew Trump’s ire because he probed possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.
Comey was also critical of Trump in the “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.”
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation eventually cleared the Trump campaign in 2019, announcing the that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in Russia’s election interference activities.
Comey is now for his handling of the 2016 Trump-Russia investigation.
Schiff led the first House impeachment of Trump and sat on the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
Schiff is now for alleged mortgage fraud.
Schiff this weekend that Trump is pushing Bondi to prosecute his opponents “to silence and intimidate people.”
Schiff said he took Trump’s weekend social media post as a threat.
“He made it very clear that he was firing the U.S. attorney in Virginia for not bringing a meritless mortgage fraud case against Letitia James. And he’s basically out in the (open), pressuring his attorney general, sending a message to other U.S. attorneys out there that if they don’t do his will, if they don’t do his bidding and bring meritless cases against his enemies, they could be fired,” Schiff told MSNBC.
, the Political Management program director at George Washington University, said this looks to be an attempt by Trump to “rewrite history.”
“What Donald Trump is trying to do is he is trying to say that his opponents have engaged in ‘lawfare,’ which is the idea that you use the legal system to attack your political opponents,” Belt said. “And he’s trying to say that this started under (former President Joe) Biden, and that he is going after them. But of course, that is … in the eye of the beholder. But it’s also sort of questionable whether or not he has legal grounds to do this, because these attorneys are making the decisions based upon the evidence they have and the types of crimes that are before them.”
Belt said Trump appears to be engaged now in the “lawfare” he accuses his opponents of engaging in.
This is a political priority rather than a prosecutorial priority, it seems,” Belt said.
Oklahoma State University politics professor said it’s “pretty transparent” that Trump is going after his “enemies.”
But McKee was less than convinced that the Justice Department has strong legal cases to prosecute against James, Comey and Schiff.
McKee also questioned the political utility for Trump in going after James, Comey and Schiff.
You don’t win a single swing voter in America by doing something that is so patently, ‘I’m going to go after my enemies, and the basis for doing so is not grounded in any legal justification,’” McKee said.
, a political scientist at the University at Buffalo in New York, said Trump and Republicans accused Biden of using the Justice Department to go after opponents, including Trump.
But Neiheisel said Biden publicly denied pressuring the Justice Department to act on his behalf.
This is a “good bit of a departure” from the previous approach, Neiheisel said.
McKee and his fellow politics experts took note of how “blatant” Trump was being with his desire to see his political opponents prosecuted.
They all said there’s supposed to be autonomy and independence for the Justice Department’s prosecutorial decisions. But Trump isn’t being shy about knocking down that wall of separation, they said.
I think we’ve seen with this Trump term that there has been less willingness to let those entities do their work and more willingness to exercise more of a top-down approach to their function,” Neiheisel said.
But why didn’t Trump just call Bondi on the phone instead of posting his message to her for the world to see on social media?
“A very frustrated and angry president,” Belt said. “He obviously wants – he wants these people in jail because … they are his political enemies as he sees them. And as he , he hates his political enemies.”
Belt said this method signals to Trump’s followers and Congress what he wants, and it puts more public heat on the attorney general.
“You put a missive out there for the world to read, and you’re basically telling the DOJ to ‘sic my enemies,’” McKee said.