Donald Trump made clear on Saturday evening that he is frustrated with his attorney general over her hesitance to bring politically-motivated criminal cases against a list of the president’s enemies, something the White House has been working to engineer on flimsy pretenses for months.
The president issued a Truth Social post on Saturday addressed to Pam Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, stating that he’d reviewed numerous reports from the Department of Justice apparently stating that no progress was being made on launching the prosecutions after criminal referrals were sent to Bondi’s team by William Pulte, an official at the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
In the post, which began “Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done,’” Trump assumes the guilt of Sen. Adam Schiff and others like Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, and demands that Bondi begin criminal prosecutions without “delay.”
The post finishes with Trump declaring, “[w]e can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
His comments refer to a campaign of mortgage fraud allegations the president has lobbed, with the help of two top deputies, against a slew of Democratic officials. The targets include Schiff, Cook, former FBI Director James Comey, and others.
Leading the charge to raise those allegations is William Pulte, Trump’s appointee at the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Together with a specially-appointed U.S. attorney, Ed Martin, the pair are working directly under the president to identify and target Democrats and others with criminal referrals to the Justice Department.
Even with Martin’s status as a special prosecutor, however, the agency under Bondi has not brought any charges against any of the president’s targets. Those targeted have all strenuously denied the accusations.
Trump’s frustration with the issue comes as the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Virginia resigned on Friday rather than participate in Trump’s scheme, forcing the president to nominate another former aide to fill the spot. Lindsey Halligan, an inexperienced litigator who has never prosecuted a state or federal case, is the president’s pick for the job as the White House pressures that office to launch an investigation into New York state’s attorney general on similar charges.
“She is extremely intelligent, fearless and, working with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, has the strength and determination to be absolutely OUTSTANDING in this new and very important role,” Trump wrote in a separate Truth Social post announcing Halligan’s appointment on Friday.
Even if the president is successful in breaking down the Department of Justice’s supposed political independence there’s no certainty that any prosecutions launched against Schiff or any of Trump’s other targets would result in convictions.
Grand juries in the District of Columbia have declined to bring felony charges against protesters and other targets of Trump’s DoJ in several cases, including one prominent instance where a man was seen on video hurling a sandwich at a member of federal law enforcement.
Administration officials told The Independent that Todd Blanche, a former top prosecutor in the Southern District of New York who represented President Trump in multiple criminal cases during his time out of office, has complained to top administration figures about Martin bypassing the department’s existing infrastructure while going beyond simply looking at whether his targets committed mortgage fraud by probing possible criminal tax violations.
Blanche is understood to have offered Martin access to staff and resources to aid him, because the failure to obtain indictments against James, Schiff or Cook would cause further embarrassment for the department.
Trump “interacts with many valued voices across his Administration” and “receives regular updates” from Bondi and Blanche, White House deputy spokesperson Abigail Jackson told The Independent.
“He also relies on the many other strong relationships he has, like with Ed Martin, to get input and discuss ideas on a variety of issues,” Jackson added.
