A Democracy Drive Thread
Turning the Justice Department against the people who investigated and prosecuted him — indictments brought by a loyalist with no prosecutorial experience, then thrown out as unlawful.
After returning to office, the president directed the machinery of federal law enforcement at the very people who had investigated or prosecuted him — former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former special counsel Jack Smith. This thread tracks that campaign in chronological order, with sources: the public demands for prosecution, the removal of a U.S. attorney who declined to bring charges and his replacement with a loyalist, the indictments that followed, and the courts and grand juries that threw them out. The entries are presented in order so the sequence speaks for itself.
September 27, 2024
In his own words
Citing a conservative group’s report about one search term on one day, Trump posted that Google “has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump” and that he would “request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the Election.” Google said both campaigns’ sites appeared at the top of relevant searches.
“I will request their prosecution, at the maximum levels, when I win the Election, and become President of the United States!”
January 20, 2025
On the ground
Signers included former CIA directors John Brennan and Leon Panetta and former DNI James Clapper. The order also asked for a report on “inappropriate activity” connected to the letter.
On the ground
Incoming Pentagon officials gave no explanation. Biden had preemptively pardoned Milley hours earlier because of Trump’s threats against him.
January 24, 2025
On the ground
Biden had repeatedly renewed Fauci’s protection because of threats. Trump said, “You can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you worked for government.” Fauci hired private security.
“You can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you worked for government.”
January 27, 2025
In the administration’s first week, the Justice Department fired at least a dozen officials who had worked on special counsel Jack Smith’s two prosecutions of Trump, with the acting attorney general saying they could not be trusted to implement the president’s agenda. Smith himself had resigned days earlier. Over the following months the FBI also fired agents who had worked the cases.
January 28, 2025
On the ground
The Pentagon said “undermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security.” Biden’s preemptive pardon covered criminal prosecution but not administrative action on Milley’s rank.
January 31, 2025
On the ground
A memo dated January 31, 2025 directed then-interim D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin to fire probationary prosecutors assigned to Capitol riot cases; none was accused of wrongdoing. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the FBI to compile the names of all current and former employees assigned “at any time” to the January 6 investigation, and eight FBI executives were ordered out. The acting FBI director said the request covered thousands of employees.
February 5, 2025
On the ground
Bondi’s February 5, 2025 memo listed the special counsel’s cases, the Manhattan prosecution and Letitia James’s civil fraud case among its targets, along with “improper investigative tactics” in January 6 cases. The group was later run by Ed Martin, who said it would publicly “name and shame” people it could not charge.
February 20, 2025
On the ground
Garcia had also mocked Musk at a DOGE subcommittee hearing. Martin asked him to respond by February 24. Garcia said, “No reasonable person would view my comments as a threat.”
February 25, 2025
On the ground
A presidential memo suspended clearances held by Peter Koski and all Covington lawyers and staff “who assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith.” Covington said it represented Smith after it became apparent he would become the subject of a government investigation. It was the first of a series of orders punishing law firms for their clients and lawyers.
On the ground
Reports on February 25, 2025 said Patel had ordered a probe of Comey related to alleged surveillance of Trump’s 2016 campaign. Patel had published a book naming Comey among a list of “government gangsters” he said should be pursued.
March 17, 2025
On the ground
Biden had extended their protection for six months before leaving office. Trump called the costs “ridiculous.”
April 9, 2025
On the ground
The presidential memoranda revoked Krebs’s and Taylor’s security clearances and those of their associates, including at Krebs’s employer SentinelOne and at the University of Pennsylvania, where Taylor taught. The Krebs order called for a review of six years of the cybersecurity agency’s work. Signing Taylor’s order, Trump said: “I think he’s guilty of treason if you want to know the truth.” Krebs left his job; his Global Entry was later revoked.
“I think he’s guilty of treason if you want to know the truth.”
April 24, 2025
On the ground
ActBlue called it an “oppressive use of power.” Trump’s own campaign fundraising had faced similar complaints about donor practices.
May 3, 2025
On the ground
Her later document release did not show that Fauci hid COVID’s origins or committed a crime.
May 8, 2025
Bill Pulte, Trump’s appointee atop the Federal Housing Finance Agency, referred New York Attorney General Letitia James — whose office had won the civil fraud judgment against Trump — to the Justice Department, alleging she misrepresented properties to obtain better mortgage terms. The FBI opened a criminal investigation in May. James’s office called it political retaliation.
May 13, 2025
In his own words
Martin told reporters that some conduct might not be criminal but should still be exposed, and that he would use his position to identify people publicly. Longstanding Justice Department policy bars prosecutors from publicly disparaging people they do not charge.
May 19, 2025
After Comey posted an Instagram photo of seashells arranged as “86 47” on May 15, administration officials cast it as a threat against the president. The Secret Service questioned him and the Department of Homeland Security opened an investigation. Comey deleted the post, saying he had meant it as a political message.
May 20, 2025
In his own words
He posted it on social media after Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis amid right-wing claims of a cover-up.
On the ground
The probe followed a referral from Republican Rep. James Comer. Cuomo said he was never told.
June 4, 2025
On the ground
The memo questions the validity of Biden’s pardons and executive actions signed by autopen and directs an inquiry into whether aides “conspired to deceive the public” about Biden’s mental state. Presidents of both parties have used autopens for decades.
June 10, 2025
On the ground
In June 2025 Bondi fired multiple employees involved in the Jack Smith prosecutions, and on June 27 at least three prosecutors who worked on Capitol riot cases, with letters saying they were “removed from federal service effective immediately.” In July she fired about 20 more tied to the Trump cases. By March 2026, the deputy attorney general boasted that everyone at the FBI and Justice Department who had investigated Trump was gone.
On the ground
The charges stem from a May 9, 2025 scuffle outside Delaney Hall, where Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested after trying to join McIver and other members of Congress on an oversight visit; the trespassing charge against Baraka was dropped. Prosecutors allege McIver struck agents with her forearms. She pleaded not guilty and called it “a brazen attempt at political intimidation.” A judge declined to dismiss the charges. After the clash, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said arresting Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, who were also on the visit, was “definitely on the table.”
July 8, 2025
The Justice Department confirmed it had opened criminal investigations into former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan — both central to the inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election — following a referral from CIA Director John Ratcliffe alleging possible false statements to Congress.
July 16, 2025
Maurene Comey — a veteran federal prosecutor in Manhattan who handled the Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean “Diddy” Combs cases — was fired with no stated reason beyond a reference to the president’s authority. She is James Comey’s daughter. In a message to colleagues she warned that firing a career prosecutor without cause would let fear seep into the decisions of those who remained.
“Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought.”
July 26, 2025
In his own words
Federal records show the Harris campaign paid Beyoncé’s production company $165,000 for event production costs, which the law requires campaigns to cover. There was no $11 million payment, and no federal law bans paying for endorsements. Trump had called for investigations of Harris’s celebrity endorsers since May.
July 27, 2025
In his own words
On Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, Ratcliffe said he had “no doubt” Clinton, Brennan and Clapper “conspired against President Trump” and argued statutes of limitations might not prevent charges. The 2017 intelligence finding that Russia interfered to help Trump had been upheld by multiple reviews, including the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee.
“That’s why I’ve made the referrals that I have.”
August 1, 2025
The Office of Special Counsel — a small federal watchdog agency — opened a Hatch Act investigation into Jack Smith, alleging his prosecutions of Trump had been politically motivated, after a request from Sen. Tom Cotton. Records later showed the probe issued nearly 200 subpoenas seeking records on roughly 430 Republican individuals and entities.
August 4, 2025
On the ground
The move followed referrals from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who accused Obama officials of a “treasonous conspiracy.” CNN reported Gabbard’s claims misrepresented the intelligence; the declassified documents did not undercut the core 2017 findings. Prior reviews, including Republican-led ones and special counsel Durham’s, produced no such charges. The probe later became a “grand conspiracy” grand jury in Florida.
August 8, 2025
On the ground
Subpoenas from the Northern District of New York, led by Trump appointee John Sarcone, sought records on James’s investigations of the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, with a grand jury in Albany examining possible “deprivation of rights.” Her lawyer called it “the most blatant and desperate example” of political retribution. A judge later disqualified Sarcone and blocked the subpoenas.
August 12, 2025
On the ground
Martin’s August 12, 2025 letter said James would best serve “the good of the state and nation” by resigning “as an act of good faith.” Her lawyer Abbe Lowell replied that the demand violated Justice Department policies against using prosecutorial power for political ends. Martin later posted photos of himself in a trench coat outside James’s townhouse, which angered department leaders and contributed to his removal from the working group.
August 14, 2025
On the ground
Dunn, an Air Force veteran, had called the agents “fascists” and shouted “I don’t want you in my city!” The video was titled “Nighttime Routine: Operation Make D.C. Safe Again Edition.”
August 19, 2025
On the ground
Gabbard accused them of “politicization or weaponization of intelligence” without evidence. One name on the list she posted to X was a CIA officer working undercover on Russia; she had not consulted the agency. The next day she announced “ODNI 2.0,” cutting her office’s staff by more than 40% and folding the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which tracks foreign election interference.
August 21, 2025
A New York appeals court vacated the roughly half-billion-dollar penalty in the civil fraud case Letitia James had won against Trump, ruling the fine violated the Eighth Amendment’s bar on excessive fines, while leaving other nonmonetary penalties in place. The decision removed the financial heart of the case that had made James a top target — even as the criminal pursuit of her continued.
August 22, 2025
On the ground
The court-authorized searches revived an investigation that began before Trump took office; the FBI had cited a foreign hack of Bolton’s AOL account. Trump said he didn’t “want to know about it” while comparing it to the search of Mar-a-Lago. In October a Maryland grand jury indicted Bolton on 18 counts of transmitting or retaining national defense information. On June 26, 2026, he pleaded guilty to a single count of retaining national defense information.
August 24, 2025
In his own words
Christie was never charged. Two of his aides were convicted, but the Supreme Court overturned those convictions in 2020.
““For the sake of JUSTICE, perhaps we should start looking at that very serious situation again?””
August 26, 2025
On the ground
Reid was arrested in July while filming federal officers transferring detainees to ICE custody. Pirro’s office sought a felony indictment three times and was refused each time, then charged a misdemeanor. Grand juries also declined to indict the man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent; he was later acquitted. Grand juries almost never refuse prosecutors.
August 27, 2025
In his own words
Trump posted that Soros “and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests.” In September he said Soros “should be in jail.” Aakash Singh, an aide to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, then directed U.S. attorney’s offices to draft investigative plans targeting the foundations, citing possible charges from arson to wire fraud, RICO and material support for terrorism. Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a bill adding rioting to RICO predicates aimed at protest funders. Open Society called the claims “false” and “outrageous.”
“George Soros, and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests.”
September 15, 2025
On the ground
The suit says Comey, who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell and Sean Combs, was fired by email “pursuant to Article II of the United States Constitution” with no other explanation after almost 10 years in the Southern District of New York. A federal judge later allowed the case to proceed over the Justice Department’s objection.
In his own words
The employee in Portage, Michigan, was fired by the company after refusing a Republican Party order. Bondi said: “Businesses cannot discriminate. If you wanna go in and print posters with Charlie’s pictures on them for a vigil, you have to let them do that. We can prosecute you for that.” A DOJ spokesperson later said the Civil Rights Division was not proceeding. The same week Bondi suggested prosecuting “hate speech,” then walked it back.
“We can prosecute you for that.”
On the ground
Aldenberg, one of the first responders at Sandy Hook Elementary, where 20 children and six staff were killed, testified at Jones’ 2022 trial and was among the plaintiffs who won the billion-dollar verdict. Martin’s Sept. 15, 2025 letter referenced “criminal laws protecting the citizens from actions by government employees who may be acting for personal benefit.” Jones posted it as proof of a DOJ probe of “law-fare” against him. After Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche reportedly confronted Martin, he withdrew the request on Sept. 24, saying there was no investigation. Lawyer Christopher Mattei called it “bullying.”
September 20, 2025
In a Truth Social post addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the president demanded immediate criminal action against former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Sen. Adam Schiff, declaring they were “guilty as hell” and that nothing was being done. Putting prosecutorial demands in writing collapsed the customary wall between the White House and Justice Department charging decisions.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.”
September 22, 2025
Erik Siebert, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was pushed out after his office concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge Comey or James. The president installed Lindsey Halligan — a former personal lawyer and White House aide who had never worked as a prosecutor — as interim U.S. Attorney. Within days she personally secured the indictments her predecessor had declined to bring.
September 23, 2025
On the ground
Rosenzweig was two weeks from trying a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud case and was observing Rosh Hashanah with his family when the firing email, signed by Bondi, arrived. The blog, defunct for more than six years, mostly covered travel and sports. He sued in 2026 seeking reinstatement.
September 25, 2025
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted Comey on two counts — making a false statement to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding — tied to his September 2020 Senate testimony about the FBI’s Russia investigation. The charges were filed days before the five-year statute of limitations expired, brought by Halligan within days of taking over the office.
September 26, 2025
In his own words
On Sept. 26, 2025, Trump posted that Monaco “has been shockingly hired as the President of Global Affairs for Microsoft, in a very senior role with access to Highly Sensitive Information. Monaco’s having that kind of access is unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to stand.” He wrote that Microsoft “should immediately terminate the employment of Lisa Monaco.” Her security clearances had been revoked in February, and Trump said she had been barred from all federal property. The demand rattled Washington’s lobbying industry.
“It is my opinion that Microsoft should immediately terminate the employment of Lisa Monaco.”
October 1, 2025
On the ground
Writer Julie Kelly posted that the public “can only assume” Ben’Ary was part of “internal resistance” to the Comey indictment. He had no role in the case. Ben’Ary, who was prosecuting an alleged plotter of the 2021 Kabul airport attack that killed 13 U.S. service members, taped a letter to his office door saying department leaders were “more concerned” with pursuing the president’s perceived enemies than protecting the country.
October 3, 2025
On the ground
CBS and others reported the FBI weighed a public arrest and perp walk for Comey, which is highly unusual for a white-collar defendant who had agreed to appear. An agent who objected was suspended for insubordination and later fired. The court instead issued a summons, and no perp walk took place.
“In this @fbi, follow the chain of command or get relieved.”
October 7, 2025
On the ground
The agents had been named in documents released by Sen. Chuck Grassley about “Arctic Frost,” the precursor to Smith’s cases, which obtained phone toll records of some members of Congress. Patel said on Fox News he “blew up CR-15, the public corruption squad.” About a dozen FBI staff who worked on the Mar-a-Lago documents case were fired over two days later in the fall. Several fired agents filed a class action alleging a retribution campaign.
“You’re darn right I fired those agents; you’re darn right I blew up CR-15, the public corruption squad.”
October 9, 2025
Halligan’s office indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James — whose office had won a multimillion-dollar civil fraud judgment against Trump — on one count of bank fraud and one of making a false statement to a financial institution, alleging she misrepresented a property to obtain better mortgage terms. She pleaded not guilty at her October 24 arraignment and called the case political retribution.
October 23, 2025
On the ground
Bill Pulte, Trump’s housing-finance appointee, had referred Schiff for prosecution, as he did Letitia James and Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook; mortgage fraud became the administration’s go-to allegation against foes. CNN reported Maryland prosecutors were hesitant to proceed. Asked about it, Trump said: “I hope it’s true, but I don’t know anything.” The Justice Department later opened a probe into how the Schiff investigation had been handled.
“I hope it’s true, but I don’t know anything.”
On the ground
Prosecutors allege the group surrounded and banged on an agent’s vehicle on September 26 during “Operation Midway Blitz,” scratching it and breaking a mirror. Abughazaleh, running in Illinois’s 9th District, called it an “attempt by the Trump administration to criminalize protest.” A judge later dismissed the conspiracy charge against the “Broadview Six.”
October 24, 2025
In his own words
Trump posted that documents showed Wray, Smith, Garland, Monaco “and other crooked lowlifes” had signed off on the “Arctic Frost” investigation, which obtained phone records of nine Republican lawmakers, and wrote: “These Radical Left Lunatics should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!” A month earlier he had demanded Microsoft fire Monaco, calling her “a menace.”
“These Radical Left Lunatics should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!”
November 3, 2025
On the ground
Comey’s lawyers submitted more than 60 pages of Trump’s public attacks, including his September post ordering Bondi to act. The department wrote: “These posts reflect the President’s view that the defendant has committed crimes that should be met with prosecution. They may even suggest that the President disfavors the defendant. But they are not direct evidence of a vindictive motive.” A magistrate judge soon accused prosecutors of an “indict first, investigate later” approach.
“They may even suggest that the President disfavors the defendant. But they are not direct evidence of a vindictive motive.”
November 11, 2025
On the ground
The Campaign for Accountability asked both state bars to investigate whether Halligan, a former insurance lawyer and White House aide, violated professional-conduct rules and was unfit to practice. It renewed the complaint in February 2026 after courts ruled against her. In February 2026 the Florida Bar wrote that it already had an investigation pending, then said in March that there was no pending investigation.
November 17, 2025
On the ground
In a mid-November letter, the House Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat said credible allegations indicated Martin was “violating federal law by concealing and destroying” communications to hide the group’s activities. The watchdog American Oversight sued the department for records on Martin.
November 19, 2025
On the ground
At a hearing before Judge Michael Nachmanoff, prosecutors conceded that after the grand jury declined one of three proposed charges, Halligan brought an altered indictment to the magistrate’s courtroom to be signed rather than presenting it to the full panel. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick had already found her grand-jury presentation may have included privileged material or misstated the law, citing a “disturbing pattern” of missteps.
November 20, 2025
In his own words
In the 90-second video, Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan told service members they can refuse illegal orders. On Nov. 20, 2025, Trump called it “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” and wrote that each of the “traitors” should be “ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL.” He reposted more than a dozen comments, including one reading “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!” Stephen Miller called the video “insurrection.” Speaker Mike Johnson said Trump was merely “defining a crime.”
“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
November 24, 2025
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismissed the indictments against both Comey and James, ruling that Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. Attorney had been unlawful and that everything flowing from it was invalid. The dismissals were without prejudice, leaving open the possibility of re-charging.
“All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment … were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.”
On the ground
The Pentagon’s Nov. 24, 2025 statement said Kelly’s words may have interfered with the “loyalty, morale, or good order and discipline of the armed forces” and that its review “may include recall to active duty for court-martial proceedings.” The next day, Sen. Elissa Slotkin said the FBI’s counterterrorism division had notified the six lawmakers it was opening what appeared to be an inquiry; she called it a “scare tactic.” On Jan. 5, 2026, Hegseth formally censured Kelly as “a necessary process step” toward demoting him from his retired rank and cutting his retirement pay. On Feb. 12, 2026, a federal judge blocked the punishment, ruling that the Pentagon had “trampled” on Kelly’s First Amendment rights.
November 25, 2025
On the ground
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia were first told to sign filings in the name of Halligan’s first assistant, then an hour later instructed by internal email to keep using Halligan’s name. Halligan left the office in January 2026 after further court orders.
December 4, 2025
After the dismissal, the Justice Department sought a fresh indictment of James — and a federal grand jury declined to return one. It was a rare rebuke; grand juries almost always indict when prosecutors ask them to.
January 14, 2026
On the ground
FBI agents search the Virginia home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, who covers Trump’s transformation of the federal government, and seize her phone and watch in a leak investigation in which she is not a target. The probe concerns a Maryland system administrator accused of taking home classified reports. Press freedom groups called searching a reporter’s home a highly unusual escalation.
January 20, 2026
On the ground
Federal prosecutors serve grand jury subpoenas on Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and county officials. The investigation is into whether their public statements obstructed the immigration crackdown, under a conspiracy statute. One subpoena sought “any records tending to show a refusal to come to the aid of immigration officials.” Walz and Frey called it a bullying tactic.
January 22, 2026
Former special counsel Jack Smith — who had brought the federal classified-documents and January 6 cases against Trump — testified publicly before the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, which had subpoenaed him in October and deposed him behind closed doors in December. Smith testified that the decision to charge Trump was his alone and rested on Trump’s own conduct. As he testified, the president called for Smith himself to be criminally prosecuted.
“Based on his testimony today, there is no question that Deranged Jack Smith should be prosecuted for his actions.”
February 10, 2026
On the ground
Pirro’s office sought charges under 18 U.S.C. § 2387, which punishes urging insubordination in the military, against Kelly, Slotkin and Reps. Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, Maggie Goodlander and Chris Deluzio, all military or intelligence veterans. Their video restated the long-established principle that service members must refuse unlawful orders. Trump had called it “seditious behavior, punishable by death.” After the grand jury refused, the office shelved the effort.
February 23, 2026
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon — the Trump appointee who had dismissed the classified-documents prosecution — permanently blocked release of the second volume of Smith’s report on that case, granting requests from Trump and two co-defendants. The volume covered the documents investigation the public was never allowed to see.
March 12, 2026
DOJ’s Southern District of Florida — before Judge Aileen Cannon, the lone judge at the Fort Pierce courthouse — convened a grand jury for a sweeping “grand conspiracy” investigation alleging that Comey, Brennan and other former officials conspired against Trump from 2016 onward. It has issued more than 130 subpoenas, including one to Comey, and the department removed a national-security section chief who resisted, installing Trump loyalist Joseph diGenova.
March 25, 2026
Four months after the case against her was dismissed, Bill Pulte filed new criminal referrals against James — this time alleging homeowners-insurance fraud — directed to two Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys in Florida and Illinois. Her counsel called it a continuing political vendetta.
In handing records to House Republicans to discredit Smith, the Justice Department disclosed a January 2023 internal memo revealing that prosecutors had evidence Trump took a document so sensitive only six people in the government were cleared to see it — and that Susie Wiles had witnessed Trump showing a classified map to others on his plane. The effort to bury the case instead surfaced some of its most damaging findings.
April 15, 2026
On the ground
Gabbard claimed “deep state actors” had “concocted a false narrative” to impeach Trump, without providing evidence of any crime. The whistleblower had reported Trump’s request that Ukraine’s president investigate Joe Biden — a call whose rough transcript the White House itself released. Rep. Jim Himes said the referral “will amount to nothing because no misconduct occurred” but will chill future whistleblowers.
April 17, 2026
On the ground
Maria Medetis Long, a Miami federal prosecutor, told defense lawyers she was off the case after resisting pressure to bring quick charges over Brennan’s congressional testimony about the 2017 Russia assessment. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche brought in diGenova, who represented Trump’s campaign in its failed effort to overturn the 2020 election. A former U.S. attorney called the removal “extremely unusual.” The prosecutor who later led the broader “grand conspiracy” probe resigned without charging anyone.
April 28, 2026
Six months after his first case was thrown out, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina indicted Comey again — this time on two counts of threatening the president under 18 U.S.C. § 871. The charge rested on a May 2025 Instagram post in which Comey shared a photo of seashells arranged to read “86 47,” which prosecutors cast as a threat against the 47th president. Comey had deleted the post, saying he had meant it as a political message and hadn’t realized the numbers were linked to violence. He faces up to 10 years.
“I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence.”
October 7, 2026
In his own words
In the Oval Office on October 7, 2026, a reporter asked Trump what Democrats would impeach him for if they win Congress in the November 3 midterms. He answered by naming his predecessors and his 2016 opponent as people he could have gone after, and said he held back only because the presidency is “sacred” and must be treated “with respect.” “I’ve had my shot — and still do — at Joe Biden, at Hillary Clinton, at Barack Hussein Obama,” he said. “I’ve had plenty of people say let’s go get them.” He said “they” had done “many illegal things” but did not say what any of them had supposedly done. The restraint he described does not match his record. His Justice Department indicted former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom had investigated him. Judges dismissed those cases, and Comey was then indicted a second time. Trump has called for charges against Sen. Adam Schiff, who led his first impeachment, and his Justice Department opened a probe of former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
“I could have done very bad things to Hillary Clinton. I could have done very, very bad things to Joe Biden. I could have done very bad things to Barack Hussein Obama. I thought it was inappropriate to do so because you have to treat the office of the presidency with respect. Then I found out that they impeached me twice. And I certainly, even to this moment, I can do whatever I want, if I want. They’ve done some very bad things… What they did, very illegal. What they did, many illegal things. But I view the presidency as a very sacred position.”