A few months ago, at an event in the Oval Office, a reporter asked Donald Trump a question related to Letitia James, New York’s Democratic state attorney general. The president’s response was unrestrained.
“She’s a disaster for New York,” the Republican said. “She’s a horrible, horrible human being, and I think she’s a total crook. There’s no question about it, but that’s just my opinion. … She’s a very bad person. She’s a very, very bad, a very bad person. … She’s a sick person.”
Subtle, it was not.
As part of the same rant, Trump pointed at Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was in the room, adding, “Pam is going to have to do what she wants. … Pam is going to do what’s right. She always does.”
Three months later, NBC News reported:
Federal prosecutors are in the early stages of an investigation into the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought a civil fraud case against President Donald Trump, according to three people familiar with the matter. The probe is focused on whether James’ office caused a deprivation of legal rights under the color of law through its civil suits against Trump and his businesses as well as the National Rifle Association, these people said.
A spokesperson for the state attorney general’s office told NBC News in a statement, “Any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American. We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights.”
In case anyone needs a refresher, it’s worth taking a moment to review how we arrived at this point.
It was nearly three years ago when James and her office announced a sweeping lawsuit against Trump and the Trump Organization. The civil case was rather devastating: The state attorney general’s office pointed to more than 200 instances of alleged fraud over 10 years, and announced that it was seeking civil penalties against the Republican and his business.
The case was a success: A New York judge assessed the evidence and ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization did, in fact, engage in systemic business fraud. As part of his verdict, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties against Trump and his co-defendants.
And while that ruling is still being appealed, the president’s team isn’t just pushing back against the verdict. On the contrary, in April, Trump’s federal housing director wrote a “criminal referral” letter about James to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, both of whom used to represent Trump.
Now, it appears federal prosecutors are also moving forward with an investigation into the state AG’s office.
The news comes just days after Trump’s attorney general directed Justice Department prosecutors to launch a grand jury investigation into Obama administration officials, which came on the heels of news that the Trump administration had also launched criminal investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, two longtime targets of the president. (Disclosure: Brennan is a paid contributor to MSNBC and NBC News.)
Trump has also signed first-of-their-kind executive orders seeking investigations into two former officials — Christopher Krebs, who led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Miles Taylor, a former high-ranking Department of Homeland Security official — whom he now sees as enemies. Weeks later, Trump broke new ground again by directing the Justice Department to launch a wide-ranging investigation into Joe Biden and officials in the Democrat’s administration, based on Republican conspiracy theories about the former president’s mental health.
Trump also endorsed California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s arrest; demanded that CNN face criminal prosecution for running reports the White House didn’t like; and called for the prosecution of Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey, among many others. And did I mention that in recent months, a Democratic mayor, a Democratic U.S. House member, the staffer of a different Democratic U.S. House member, a sitting judge and a labor leader have all been criminally charged, detained or taken into custody by Trump administration officials? Because that happened, too. Two weeks ago, the official White House social media account published a weird item with just six words of text: “They came after the wrong man.” The sentence appeared alongside a large image featuring the words, “I was the hunted — NOW I’M THE HUNTER,” attributed to Trump. In other words, a sitting American president, using White House resources to promote North Korea–level propaganda, pushed a twisted message about his determination to seek vengeance against other Americans. The relevance of the tweet and its message lingers for a reason. The New York Times, assessing Trump’s intensifying campaign of retribution, reported a couple of weeks ago, “This is what Washington thought retribution would look like.” The report added: Repeatedly in his first term, Mr. Trump accused his perceived enemies of treason and tried to push the F.B.I. and Justice Department to indict them. He told his chief of staff that he wanted to ‘get the I.R.S.’ on those who crossed him. Many of them were investigated, and two of them were the subjects of highly unusual and invasive audits, but none of them were ever charged. The difference now is that Mr. Trump, much more so than during his first term, is surrounded by aides and cabinet members who often appear willing to follow through on his angriest and most authoritarian impulses. The analyses came to mind anew as Trump’s DOJ targets New York’s attorney general in new ways. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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