The Wrath of Donald Trump
The White House has not responded at all to Trump posting an AI generated video of himself promoting a fictional medical technology that the AI version of himself announced would be available to every American. To my knowledge, not a single person was asked about this on yesterday’s Sunday morning political shows. The president posted evidence of what may be extreme dementia and the national press has largely just let the story go.
On to new business,
Donald Trump openly told us that if re-elected he would use the government to retaliate against his critics and those who investigated him. In just one weekend last year, Trump called for military tribunals to prosecute Liz Cheney (whom he said committed treason), Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer. He included his desire to prosecute the members of the January 6th committee.
Kamala Harris closed her campaign with frequent warnings that Donald Trump would use the military against protestors and the Department of Justice against his political opponents. Donald Trump closed his campaign with frequent promises to use the military against protestors and the Department of Justice against his political opponents.
The consequences of American’s political choice are here and Trump is fulfilling his promise of wrathful retribution.
Former FBI Director James Comey has long been a Trump target as Comey was in charge of the FBI during the investigation into Trump’s ties to the Russian government and his support of the actions they took to interfere in the 2016 election. New York Attorney General Letitia James drew Trump’s ire as she successfully prosecuted The Trump Organization for fraud (Not to be confused with Trump’s personal criminal fraud conviction, or his university’s fraud settlement).
A firewall normally exists between the president and the Department of Justice to preserve the latter’s impartiality and independence. That wall has been destroyed, with Donald Trump publicly directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his opponents. Last weekend, in a public post many believe was intended as a direct message, Trump directed Bondi to indict James Comey, Letitia James, and Adam Schiff.
The first two cases fall under the Eastern District of Virginia, which handles a large number of high profile political cases. Siebert looked into allegations about James Comey regarding perjury and allegations of mortgage fraud (stick a pin in this topic) regarding Letitia James.
With 15 years of experience in the EVDA, Erik Siebert declined to bring charges against either of them as he found no evidence of wrongdoing. Siebert could not even find sufficient probable cause against Comey to START an investigation. In the case of Letitia James, paperwork on a mortgage application incorrectly stated the loan was for a primary residence. James caught this error and notified the mortgage company. Aside from this being an EXTREMELY common clerical error, mortgage fraud requires intent and someone who contacts the mortgage company to correct an error is obviously not trying to commit fraud.
Because of these things, Siebert did not pursue prosecuting Comey or James. And because of that he was forced to resign last weekend.
Siebert was replaced by Lindsey Halligan. Compared to Siebert’s 15 years of experience as a prosecutor, Halligan has zero experience. Halligan worked as an insurance attorney before working on numerous Trump cases, both the ones against him and one of his failed defamation lawsuits. Halligan has never prosecuted anyone and has absolutely no relevant experience. Given a job in the Trump administration this year, her highest profile work was examining displays at The Smithsonian to determine if they said things Republicans object to like “slavery was bad.”
Halligan understood her assignment perfectly. Though prosecutors in the EVDA wrote a memo detailing how there was no case against Comey, Halligan moved to indict him immediately and convinced a grand jury to return two charges against Comey - perjury and obstruction. Having no experience, Halligan has already made a large number of mistakes with the case, including filing two different indictment documents, both with her signature, which she was unable to explain to the judge. No other prosecutors signed on to the indictment, which is unusual. The case against Comey is laughably weak, but the outcome isn’t the goal here. Trump has long used lengthy and costly lawsuits to bury his opponents/competitors in legal battles. The goal here is not to convict Comey. It’s to ruin him.
Lisa Cook is a governor on the Federal Reserve Board, an independent government agency. The law prevents the president from firing a Fed governor unless it’s “for cause.” Wishing to remove everyone from the Fed he disagrees with, Trump used Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte accused Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud, saying she attained a primary residence mortgage on two separate homes. (Sound familiar?)
Boilerplate language in the summary of Cook’s mortgage application mentions a primary residence. This, again, is a common clerical error. Elsewhere in the document, it’s clear the mortgage is for a vacation home. Cook also directly informed the lender of this. There is no fraud here.
Though Trump tried to remove her on August 25th, Lisa Cook remains in her Fed position as her lawsuit against Trump works its way to the Supreme Court.
Bill Pulte has launched an investigation for nearly identical claims against California Senator Adam Schiff, a frequent Trump critic and former member of the 1/6 Committee.
In a fun twist, Bill Pulte’s parents were claiming two homes as their primary residences - the same thing Pulte is going after Lisa Cook and Adam Schiff for - with the difference being they actually DID what they’ve been accused of.
Fani Willis is the District Attorney who was prosecuting Donald Trump for his election interference in Georgia until that process was interrupted by Donald Trump’s re-election. Trump is now calling for Willis to be imprisoned and the Department of Justice is subpoenaing her travel records.
These are all high profile incidents, but even less prominent workers are having to face Trump’s vengeance.
15 FBI agents who knelt in solidarity at a George Floyd protest have been fired. Almost immediately after taking office, Trump fired every lawyer who prosecuted a 1/6 attacker he could find.
So far none of these retaliations have resulted in convictions and it’s unlikely any of them will. While Trump would love to see everyone in this list imprisoned, that’s not the actual goal. The goal here is financial and reputational destruction as both vengeance and a warning to anyone else -
Do not dare oppose the president or you will be destroyed.
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