Trump Fires U.S. Attorney for Refusing to Prosecute Trump's Enemies and Replaces Him With a Former Personal Lawyer With No Experience or Scruples

Sep 24, 2025

Donald Trump just fired an experienced US attorney for refusing to prosecute two of Trump’s political enemies, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, for lack of evidence to support the charges. His replacement, another of Trump’s personal attorneys chosen for unswerving loyalty to him, is now moving ahead with bogus charges against Comey.

The New York Times reports:

Lindsey Halligan, a former defense lawyer for Mr. Trump who was hastily appointed after the president forced out her predecessor last week, is rushing to draft an indictment under withering pressure from the White House. The president has demanded the department go after one of his foremost enemies, even though career prosecutors determined there was insufficient evidence to indict Mr. Comey.
Ms. Halligan, who had no experience as a prosecutor before her recent appointment, could seek to bring charges as early as Thursday, but is expected to take action by Tuesday, when the statute of limitations on Mr. Comey’s congressional testimony expires, according to officials who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. …
Even if Ms. Halligan meets her deadline, there is no guarantee the grand jury will determine that the government has met the evidentiary threshold to indict Mr. Comey.

Right now, the greatest barrier to Trump pursuing vindictive prosecutions against his enemies seems to be the grand jury system. It is notoriously easy for prosecutors to present carefully selected evidence and get a grand jury to agree there are grounds to charge someone. But Trump’s Justice Department and its clown-car partisan lawyers have increasingly failed to clear even that low bar.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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