The only reason James Comey was indicted is because Donald Trump hates him. We can debate why Trump hates him and whether that hatred is justified, but we should all agree that being hated by a president is not sufficient grounds for a criminal indictment.
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October 13, 2025

The only reason James Comey was indicted is because Donald Trump hates him. We can debate why Trump hates him and whether that hatred is justified, but we should all agree that being hated by a president is not sufficient grounds for a criminal indictment.

 

The same holds true for New York Attorney General Letitia James. Regardless of the details surrounding her real estate investments, the bottom line is this: she was investigated and indicted because Donald Trump is vindictively using the Department of Justice to pursue his personal enemies.

 

On the day James was indicted by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, I was on live television analyzing and reacting as the details emerged. Almost immediately, questions arose about whether any career prosecutors had participated in the presentation to the grand jury or had signed the indictment.

 

I had heard the same question during the discussion of Comey’s indictment. In both cases, the assumption was that if the only lawyer willing to present evidence and sign their name was Trump’s former personal attorney — someone with no prosecutorial experience — then the case was clearly meritless.

 

What troubled me, however, was the underlying assumption that if even one career prosecutor had participated, it would somehow legitimize what was plainly a political act of vengeance.

 

As I left the studio that night, I remained unsettled by the idea that career prosecutors could be used to sway public opinion about the legitimacy of Trump’s vendetta simply by taking part in the process. But since it appeared that no career lawyers had participated in either case, I let my concern fade.

 

Then, this weekend, I read that federal prosecutors in Maryland are preparing to indict Trump critic John Bolton. As with James and Comey, it is abundantly clear why Bolton is being targeted. If Trump were not in office — and Bolton not his enemy — it is inconceivable that Bolton’s home would have been raided or that any resulting evidence would now be before a grand jury.

 

Yet, despite this obvious act of retaliation, MSNBC reported that “career prosecutors in Maryland consider charges against Bolton to have some factual merit.”

 

Some factual merit. The words leapt off the page. That is not the standard for an indictment. It is the rationalization used by a career prosecutor trying to justify an immoral decision — to keep their job and please their boss by doing something wrong.

 

Federal prosecutors once prided themselves on being scrupulously nonpolitical, indicting only those they genuinely believed to be guilty. Now, less than a year into this administration, I am reading that career prosecutors may move forward against a Trump critic because the case has “some factual merit.”

 

For all the lionizing of career prosecutors, it was one of the most ethical among them who warned us this could happen. In February, Emile Bove ordered lawyers in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan to dismiss federal charges against Mayor Eric Adams — clearly to satisfy the president’s political interests.

 

Hagan Scotten, the line assistant responsible for the case, refused. In his resignation letter, he wrote:

 

Any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials. If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.

 

Scotten understood something too many others have forgotten — that Trump and his sycophants at the DOJ will “eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward” to do their bidding. Those fools and cowards will be other line prosecutors who lack Scotten’s moral clarity and commitment to the rule of law. And those fools and cowards are exposing themselves now. 

 

Before Trump took office, many prominent voices urged government lawyers to stay in their posts. The assumption was that competent, principled attorneys could act as a bulwark against Trump’s authoritarian impulses.

 

Implicit in that argument was the belief that these lawyers would exercise independent professional judgment and help protect the justice system from partisan abuse. And while that may be true in some cases, Hagan Scotten warned us early on that it would not always hold. 

 

There will always be those willing to compromise their values, their oaths, and the integrity of the system to keep their positions or advance their careers. We cannot allow them to determine which prosecutions are legitimate and which are politically motivated.

 

The prosecution of Letitia James was an abuse of the criminal justice system — a weaponization of federal power against Trump’s chosen political enemies. So was the indictment of James Comey. The same can be said of the June indictment of Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, targeted because her oversight visits to an ICE facility embarrassed the administration.

 

Dozens more political prosecutions are coming, including, apparently, one against John Bolton. Many others —  against U.S. senators, Democratic governors, civil servants, and leaders of law and civil society — have been threatened. 

 

I don’t need to know whether a career federal prosecutor was involved to know these prosecutions are illegal and improper and should be dismissed. Nor should you.

 

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