President Trump is once again “weaponizing the legal system to fulfill his personal vendettas,” said The New York Times in an editorial. One day after former FBI director James Comey was arraigned in federal court, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on “flimsy charges” relating to mortgage paperwork on a 2020 house purchase in Virginia. Trump wants revenge because James, as attorney general, successfully sued him and the Trump Organization for civil fraud for repeatedly inflating his net worth to get loan, tax, and insurance benefits; the whopping $354.8 million penalty on Trump was later thrown out by an appeals court. In response to Trump’s thirst for vengeance, the Justice Department alleged that James lied to bank officials by listing the residence as a second home instead of an investment that she later rented out. The original, Trump-appointed federal prosecutor assigned to the case found insufficient evidence to pursue charges, so Trump replaced him with MAGA loyalist Lindsey Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience.
“The charges against James will present an uphill battle at trial,” said Barbara McQuade in Bloomberg. In the courtroom, the onus will be on the government to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that James knowingly intended to defraud a financial institution when she signed the mortgage papers, so she could save $19,000 in higher interest rates over the life of the loan—a very small sum for a federal case. In white-collar cases like this, the challenge is “proving what was in someone’s mind.” Trump, however, may not care about the trial’s outcome, finding satisfaction in forcing James to “face the financial and emotional costs” of defending herself in court. “In that case, Trump has already won. But at the loss of the rule of law.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
‘No Other Choice,’ ‘Dead Man’s Wire,’ and ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’Feature A victim of downsizing turns murderous, an angry Indiana man takes a lender hostage, and a portrait of family by way of three awkward gatherings
-
Political cartoons for January 11Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include green energy, a simple plan, and more
-
The launch of the world’s first weight-loss pillSpeed Read Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have been racing to release the first GLP-1 pill
-
Donald Trump’s squeeze on VenezuelaIn Depth The US president is relying on a ‘drip-drip pressure campaign’ to oust Maduro, tightening measures on oil, drugs and migration
-
Trump vs. states: Who gets to regulate AI?Feature Trump launched a task force to challenge state laws on artificial intelligence, but regulation of the technology is under unclear jurisdiction
-
Pipe bombs: The end of a conspiracy theory?Feature Despite Bongino and Bondi’s attempt at truth-telling, the MAGAverse is still convinced the Deep State is responsible
-
Trump: Losing energy and supportFeature Polls show that only one of his major initiatives—securing the border—enjoys broad public support
-
Trump’s Comey case dealt new setbackspeed read A federal judge ruled that key evidence could not be used in an effort to reindict former FBI Director James Comey
-
Trump’s poll collapse: can he stop the slide?Talking Point President who promised to ease cost-of-living has found that US economic woes can’t be solved ‘via executive fiat’
-
The military: When is an order illegal?Feature Trump is making the military’s ‘most senior leaders complicit in his unlawful acts’
-
Ukraine and Rubio rewrite Russia’s peace planFeature The only explanation for this confusing series of events is that ‘rival factions’ within the White House fought over the peace plan ‘and made a mess of it’
