A matter of revenge? Trump is weaponizing criminal prosecutions against his opponents

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During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed “retribution” for his opponents and insisted he had every right to go after his political rivals using America’s legal system. Trump repeatedly named as his targets Democratic politicians and prosecutors who worked on his criminal cases, accusing them of bias.

Even before Trump won the election, his allies began preparing enemies lists that included everyone from disloyal Republicans to “deep state” officials, Pentagon staff, and military personnel.

Soon after the inauguration, the president initiated sweeping purges at the Department of Justice and the FBI. Career prosecutors and investigators were dismissed, including those who had not only handled criminal cases against Trump but had also worked on cases related to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. On the first day of his new term, Trump pardoned more than 1,600 participants who faced legal consequences over their roles in the riot.

In September, Trump shared a post on Truth Social in which he directly demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi open criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Democratic Senator Adam Schiff. As journalists soon discovered, the post had been published by mistake: Trump had intended to send it to the attorney general as a private message.

James Comey

Just four days after the post was published, the Department of Justice formally charged Comey. Notably, the former FBI Director had played a key role in Trump’s election as president in 2016. That year, a week before the vote, Comey decided to publicly announce that he was reopening an investigation into Hillary Clinton, significantly damaging her poll numbers.

However, Trump never forgave Comey for refusing to close the investigation into his own campaign’s ties to Russia. In May 2017, Comey was dismissed, becoming the second FBI director in U.S. history to be removed from office by presidential decision.

Eight years later, in September 2025, the Trump administration accused Comey of giving false testimony to Congress. According to investigators, during Senate hearings in 2017, Comey lied when claiming he had not disclosed any classified information to the press and had not instructed his subordinates to do so, even though he allegedly leaked information about investigations into Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s campaign. But the five-year statute of limitations on that matter had expired. As a result, Comey was formally charged with lying under oath in 2020 before the Senate Judiciary Committee by asserting that he had not instructed his subordinates in 2017 to “leak” information to the media. Even in this case, investigators barely acted before the statute of limitations expired again — Comey was charged literally five days before the deadline.

The investigation into Comey was conducted by the federal prosecutor’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia, which is headed by Trump-appointee Erik Seibert. After reviewing all the evidence, Seibert opposed pursuing the case and soon afterward announced his resignation. Trump then declared that Seibert had been fired and appointed his own former lawyer, Lindsey Halligan, who had no prior prosecutorial experience. She compensated for her lack of qualifications with loyalty, personally signing the document charging Comey.

A couple of weeks earlier, the Justice Department had also dismissed James Comey’s daughter, Maureen, who had handled criminal cases against financier and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and rapper Sean Combs, better known as P. Diddy. Combs was sentenced to 50 months in prison for organizing prostitution and had already requested a pardon from Trump. Soon afterward, Comey’s son-in-law, Troy Edwards, also resigned from the Justice Department. Around the same time, an FBI agent who refused to organize a “perp walk” of Comey was dismissed.

Comey himself has pleaded not guilty and filed two motions requesting that the court drop the charges. His defense insists that Halligan was unlawfully appointed as prosecutor and that the criminal case is a politically motivated prosecution. More than a hundred former Justice Department employees have also expressed support for Comey and submitted a petition to the court to dismiss the case, calling it politicized. Among them are Obama-era Attorney General Eric Holder and George W. Bush administration Deputy Attorney General Peter Keisler.

The trial of the former FBI director is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 5.

Letitia James

A similar scenario unfolded in the case of New York Attorney General Letitia James. In 2019, her office had initiated an investigation into Trump and filed a civil lawsuit against the president and the Trump Organization, accusing both entities of systematically understating the value of their assets for tax purposes and inflating asset values when using them as collateral for loans. In 2024, a court found Trump guilty of fraud, imposed a $355 million fine, and banned him from conducting business in New York for three years.

As early as April 2025, Bill Pulte, Trump’s appointment to serve as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, claimed he had sent the Justice Department information about possible mortgage fraud by James and Democratic Senator from California Adam Schiff. According to Pulte, James illegally collected rental income from tenants living in her second home. Journalists later discovered that it is not ordinary renters who live in the house but James’s grandniece, and that James herself occasionally resides there. Moreover, the mortgage agreement signed by James neither prohibited renting her from out the house nor required her to live there full-time.

Journalists also discovered that mortgages had been obtained in the same way by Pulte’s own parents and several members of the Trump administration — including the labor and transportation secretaries and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. In other words, the practice cannot be called unequivocally illegal and is also used by Republicans. Yet a Democratic politician is being targeted, which points to a political motive behind the case.

The investigation into Letitia James was conducted by the same federal prosecutor’s office that handled the case against Comey, and the same Eric Siebert had seen no grounds for charging James either. His subordinate, Elizabeth Yusi, who led the investigation into James, also refused to initiate a criminal case. After declining to pursue charges, she and her deputy were dismissed.

On Oct. 9, Letitia James was formally charged with mortgage fraud and providing false information to a financial regulator. She pleaded not guilty in court, but if the jury sides with the prosecution, she could face up to 30 years in prison.

John Bolton

A week after the formal charges against Letitia James were filed, a criminal case was opened against former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton, who held the position for seven months during Trump’s first term and left due to disagreements with the president’s policies. Bolton later repeatedly criticized Trump for undermining U.S. influence in the world and harming Washington’s relations with allies, as well as for not taking a hard enough line on Russia and China.

In the summer of 2020, Bolton published his memoirs, where he wrote that Trump had asked whether Finland belonged to Russia. At the time, the Justice Department tried to seize copies of the book, claiming Bolton had used classified information in writing it. The Biden administration later withdrew that allegation, but the investigation into Bolton continued.

After Trump returned to power, Bolton was stripped of his security clearance and the police protection previously assigned to him due to threats from Iran. On Aug. 22, 2025, FBI agents searched his home, and on Oct. 16 it became known that Bolton was being charged on ten counts related to the unlawful possession of classified information and eight counts related to its transmission. Each count carries a potential prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Antifa and George Soros

Following the killing of well-known conservative activist Charlie Kirk and an attack on a Texas ICE immigration office that left two immigrants dead, Trump blamed the “hateful and despicable” rhetoric of his political opponents for causing the “violence and murder” on display. In both cases, however, the attackers were lone shooters, and investigators found no links to organized groups.

This did not prevent the president from signing an executive order on Sept. 22 declaring Antifa a terrorist organization. Experts criticized the decision, noting that Antifa is an “umbrella” term for numerous and diverse groups and movements, not a single organization. Moreover, under U.S. law, only international groups can be legally designated as terrorist organizations.

Trump also approved a new counterterrorism strategy (NSPM-7), granting law enforcement the authority to combat organizations linked to terrorism and political violence. They plan to target groups that express “anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-Christian” views, extremism regarding “migration, race, and gender,” and opposition to traditional beliefs about “family, religion, and morality.” Unsurprisingly, many human rights advocates warn that these definitions could be used to go after Trump’s political opposition.

The president also stated that his administration would act against those financing such organizations, and representatives of several NGOs now fear they could become the regime’s next targets It is already known that the IRS plans to launch investigations into major donors to the Democratic Party.

Among the alleged sponsors of the so-called “terrorists,” Trump has repeatedly brought up the name of billionaire George Soros and his NGO, the Open Society Foundation. However, neither the president nor members of his administration have presented any evidence linking Soros to terrorists. Instead, they accused him of funding anti-Trump No Kings demonstrations, which saw millions march in cities all across the country this past October.

According to Trump, the protesters received money from Soros — as if donating money in support of political causes were a crime in America. Meanwhile, the president did not hesitate to post on social media an AI-generated video that showed the President of the United States showering the protesters with excrement dropped from a fighter jet labelled “King Trump.”

Who’s next?

It is highly likely that in the coming months the Trump administration will bring charges against other critics of the president. Trump himself has repeatedly named people he believes should face criminal prosecution.

• Adam Schiff, a Democratic Senator from California who served as the lead prosecutor in Trump’s 2019 impeachment. Schiff is already under investigation for suspected mortgage fraud, though prosecutors have so far seen no grounds to file criminal charges.

• Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve Board member. Trump dismissed Cook in late August, also accusing her of mortgage fraud, but she still retains her position pending a Supreme Court review.

• Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who headed criminal cases against Trump related to unlawful possession of classified documents and attempts to unlawfully retain power. The administration is reportedly investigating Smith for potential violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from using their position for political purposes. Violations carry only dismissal as a penalty, and Smith left his post after Trump returned to power.

• Joe Biden and members of his close circle. In June, Trump stated that Biden should be arrested for treason, but a recent Supreme Court ruling grants former presidents broad judicial immunity. However, possible criminal cases could target Biden’s family members and White House associates. Republicans in Congress are currently investigating them, demanding that Hunter Biden’s pardon and those of dozens of others be declared unlawful.

• Christopher Wray, who succeeded Comey as FBI Director in 2017, and Merrick Garland, who served as Biden’s Attorney General. Trump holds them responsible for initiating criminal cases against him and accuses them of wiretapping Republican senators.

• John Brennan, who served as CIA Director during Barack Obama’s second term. Republicans accuse Brennan of giving false testimony regarding investigations into the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia.

According to a recent poll, only 38% of Americans believe criminal cases against the president’s opponents are legally justified, while 52% accuse Trump of using the Justice Department to carry out political persecution. Other surveys show that nearly 60% see the president’s actions as part of an effort to put political pressure on his opponents. This has not stopped Trump from clamping down even harder.