Eurasia Press & News
The Donald Trump administration has launched several criminal cases against prominent critics of the president and carried out purges within the federal prosecutor’s office and the FBI. Trump himself has repeatedly demanded prosecutions of his opponents and promises even more investigations against those he blames for his own lawsuits and the financing of “left-wing terrorism.” Some of these cases have already led to the high-profile resignations of career prosecutors, who have labeled them politically motivated.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised his opponents that he would be “their nemesis” and claimed he had every right to persecute his political opponents. Trump repeatedly targeted Democratic politicians and prosecutors who worked on his criminal cases , accusing them of bias.
Even before Trump’s election victory, his allies began preparing lists of his enemies, from disloyal Republicans to deep state officials , Pentagon employees, and military personnel .
Shortly after his inauguration, the president initiated massive purges within the Justice Department and the FBI. Career prosecutors and investigators who had not only investigated criminal cases against Trump himself but also worked on cases related to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, were fired. The president pardoned more than 1,600 participants in the storming on the first day of his new term.
Shortly after his inauguration, the president initiated massive purges of the Justice Department and the FBI.
In September, Trump published a post on the social media platform TruthSocial, directly demanding 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 was published accidentally: Trump intended to send it to the attorney general via private message.
James Comey
Just four days after this post was published, the Justice Department formally indicted James Comey. He was partly responsible for Donald Trump’s election in 2016: Comey decided to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton a week before the election, which significantly damaged her approval ratings.
However, Trump never forgave Comey for refusing to close the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia. In May 2017, Comey was fired , becoming the second FBI director in US history to be removed by a presidential decree.
In September 2025, the Trump administration charged James Comey with lying to Congress. Investigators alleged that Comey lied at a Senate hearing in 2017, claiming he had not disclosed any classified information to the press or given any such orders to his subordinates, even though he allegedly leaked information to journalists about investigations into Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s campaign. However, the five-year statute of limitations on this story had expired. Therefore, Comey was formally charged with lying under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020, claiming he had not given his subordinates orders to leak information to the media in 2017. Moreover, the investigation barely made it before the statute of limitations expired again (this time in 2020)—Comey had been charged just five days earlier.
The investigation into Comey was led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, headed by Trump-appointed prosecutor Eric Siebert. After reviewing all the evidence, he opposed the prosecution and soon after announced his resignation. Trump then announced Siebert’s dismissal and appointed his former attorney, Lindsey Halligan, in his place. Halligan had no prosecutorial experience. What she lacked in qualifications, she compensated for with loyalty, personally signing the indictment against Comey.
A couple of weeks earlier, James Comey’s daughter, Maureen, was fired from the Justice Department . She had led the criminal cases against pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and rapper Sean Combs , better known as P. Diddy. The latter was sentenced to 50 months in prison for organizing prostitution and had already asked Trump for clemency. Soon after, Comey’s son-in-law , Troy Edwards, also resigned from the Justice Department. Around the same time, an FBI agent was fired for refusing to put Comey on camera in court.
Comey himself has denied guilt and filed two motions demanding the court dismiss the charges against him. His defense maintains that Halligan was unlawfully appointed as prosecutor, and that the criminal case itself is selective and politically motivated. More than a hundred former Justice Department officials have also come out in support of Comey and filed a motion asking the court to dismiss the criminal case against him, calling it politicized. Among them are former Attorney General under Barack Obama Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General under George W. Bush Peter Keisler.
The former FBI director’s trial is tentatively scheduled for January 5, 2026.
Letitia James
The investigation into New York State Attorney General Letitia James, a Democratic representative, followed a similar scenario. It was her office that initiated the investigation into Trump in 2019 and filed a civil lawsuit against the president and his firm, the Trump Organization. James accused them of underreporting their assets for taxes and overstating their assets when using them as collateral for loans. In 2024, a court found Trump guilty of fraud, fined him $355 million , and banned him from doing business in New York for three years.
Back in April 2025, Trump-appointed Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pulte announced that he had filed a report with the Justice Department regarding possible mortgage fraud by James and California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff. According to Pulte, on the mortgage application for the home, James listed it as her primary residence, although she was actually renting it out.
However, as journalists discovered , it’s not the tenants who live in the house, but James’s great-niece. The Attorney General herself even resides there from time to time. The mortgage agreement signed by James doesn’t prohibit her from renting out the house and allows her to live there on a non-permanent basis.
Moreover, journalists discovered that Pulte’s parents, as well as several members of the Trump administration—the Secretaries of Labor and Transportation and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency—also obtained mortgages in a similar manner . This practice isn’t exactly illegal, and even Republicans aren’t above it. However, the prosecution of a Democratic politician for it suggests a political motive.
The investigation into Letitia James was conducted by the same federal prosecutor’s office that investigated James Comey. As with the former FBI director, then-chief Eric Siebert saw no grounds for charges in James’s actions. His subordinate, Elizabeth Yusi, who had led the investigation into James, also declined to open a criminal case. After refusing to open a criminal investigation, she and her deputy were fired .
On October 9, Letitia James was finally charged with mortgage fraud and making false statements to a financial regulator. She pleaded not guilty in court, but if the jury upholds the prosecution’s case, she could face up to 30 years in prison.
John Bolton
A week after Letitia James was formally charged, criminal charges were also filed against Trump’s former National Security Advisor, John Bolton. He held the position for seven months during Trump’s first term and resigned due to disagreement with the president’s policies. Bolton subsequently repeatedly accused Trump of undermining US influence and relations with allies, as well as of not taking a tough enough stance on Russia and China.
In the summer of 2020, John Bolton published a memoir that, among other things, contained critical remarks about Donald Trump. For example, he wrote that Trump had asked whether Finland belonged to Russia. The Justice Department then attempted to seize the book, citing Bolton’s use of classified information in its writing. The Biden administration withdrew the charges, but the investigation into the former national security adviser continued.
“Trump asked whether Finland belonged to Russia,” John Bolton wrote in his memoirs.
After Trump’s return to power, Bolton was stripped of his security clearance and the protection he had received due to threats from Iran. On August 22, 2025, the FBI raided his home, and on October 16, it was announced that Bolton had been charged with ten counts of illegal possession of classified information and eight counts of transferring it. He faces up to 10 years in prison for each count.
Antifa and George Soros
Following the murder of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the attack on an ICE detention center in Texas, which left two immigrants dead, Trump blamed the left and its “hate rhetoric.” However, in both cases, the attackers were lone gunmen, and investigators found no connection to organized groups.
This didn’t stop the president from signing an executive order on September 22 declaring the left-wing Antifa movement a terrorist organization. Experts criticized this decision at the time, as Antifa is an umbrella term for numerous and diverse groups and movements, not a single organization. Furthermore, in the United States, only international organizations can be legally designated as terrorist organizations.
Trump also approved a new counterterrorism strategy (NSPM-7). It authorizes law enforcement agencies to combat organizations linked to terrorism and political violence. The document identifies such organizations as “anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-Christian” views, extremism related to “migration, race, and gender,” and opposition to traditional views on “family, religion, and morality.” Unsurprisingly, many human rights activists believe such language could be used to target political opposition.
The president also stated that his administration would crack down on those who fund such organizations. Now, representatives of several nonprofits fear they could become targets for the presidential administration, which would hamper their work. It is already known that the Internal Revenue Service plans to launch investigations into Democratic Party donors.
Representatives of a number of NGOs fear that they could become a target for the presidential administration.
Trump has repeatedly mentioned billionaire George Soros and his nonprofit, Open Society, among the sponsors of so-called “terrorists.” However, neither the US president nor members of his administration have provided any evidence of Soros’s ties to terrorists. Instead, they have accused the billionaire of funding the anti-Trump ” No Kings” protests , which drew several million people in late October and became the largest protest in the country’s history.
Trump claimed the protesters were receiving money from Soros, and this requires an investigation. But even if this is true, there’s nothing illegal about it. Meanwhile, the president didn’t hesitate to post an AI-generated video on social media of himself flying a plane and throwing feces at protesters.
Who’s next?
It’s highly likely that the Trump administration will indict other critics of the president in the coming months. He himself has repeatedly named those who should be prosecuted.
California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff, who served as the lead prosecutor in Trump’s 2019 impeachment, is already under investigation for mortgage fraud, but prosecutors do not yet see grounds for criminal prosecution.
Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook. Trump fired her in late August, also accusing her of mortgage fraud. Cook has called her dismissal illegal and is challenging it in court. She is currently retaining her position pending the Supreme Court’s review of the case.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, who prosecuted Trump for illegally possessing classified documents and attempting to unlawfully retain power, is currently investigating Smith for possible violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits government employees from using their positions for political purposes. The penalty for violating the Act is dismissal, and Smith resigned after Trump took office.
President Joe Biden and members of his inner circle. In June, Trump declared that Biden should be arrested for treason, but thanks to a recent Supreme Court ruling, former presidents now enjoy broad immunity from prosecution. However, members of Biden’s family and those who worked with him in the White House could be targets of potential criminal prosecution. They are currently under investigation by Republicans in Congress, who are demanding that the pardons of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and dozens of other people be declared illegal.
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland. Trump holds them responsible for the criminal cases against him and accuses them of wiretapping Republican senators.
Former CIA Director John Brennan. Republicans accuse him of lying about his investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
According to one recent poll, only 38% of Americans agree that criminal cases against the president’s opponents are justified by law. Meanwhile, 52% believe that Trump is using the Justice Department for political persecution. Other polls also show that approximately 55-60% of respondents see the White House’s actions as evidence of political pressure on his opponents through the law enforcement system. However, this has not yet stopped Trump from increasing pressure on his opponents.
