Donald Trump and maga Republicans must put an end to political prosecutions based on retribution. Pam Bondi must resign.

Echo report published in Washington Monthly electronic news by James Zirin.

James Comey. the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and former District Attorney for the New York Southern District, was (barely) indicted for making false statements and obstructing Congress. 

The gossamer-thin charges, issued by a federal grand jury, came after Donald Trump pressured the attorney general to indict Comey for perjury before the statute of limitations expires next week. At issue: whether Comey lied during a Senate hearing in September 2020, about the FBI’s investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016, election, and whether his deputy, Andrew McCabe, authorized a leak to a reporter. An inspector general’s report, probably not shown to the grand jury, casts doubt that anything was untoward on Comey’s part. The president’s norm-shattering crusade against Comey included pressuring Attorney General Pam Bondi, bouncing his own respected pick for U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and replacing him with an insurance attorney who worked on Trump’s personal defense team and has no prosecutorial experience. The former is reported to have balked at making the indictments Trump wanted. The latter seemed to have no such hesitation. That Comey may well have elected Trump in 2016, by violating Department of Justice policy and giving long, rambling remarks about Hillary Clinton’s emails—a case he closed that summer and then, with great fanfare and little evidence, reopened days before the presidential election—is one of the ironies of our era when justice can best be seen through a fun house mirror. It’s a shocking development and proof that Trump’s presidency is a revenge-driven one and is in full throttle. I suspect, with great sadness, this will not be the last of the Trumpian revenge indictments.

I came of age in the law when presidents and prosecutors were made of sterner stuff. In 1967, when I joined the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, I became steeped in the Justice Department’s tradition of non-partisan independence.

Mr. Comey would head the office after 9/11, but when I was there, the head was the legendary prosecutor Bob Morgenthau, who would later become the longtime Manhattan District Attorney. Public service was in his DNA. His grandfather was the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, nominated by Woodrow Wilson. His father was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Treasury Secretary. He was a friend and appointee of President John F. Kennedy.

No one asked me about my politics when I interviewed for the job. In fact, I was a registered Republican. The “Boss,” as we affectionately called Morgenthau, expected that we, as federal prosecutors, be guided only by the facts and the law in each case. Politics was foreign to our culture. We were lawmen, not political apparatchiks. We investigated Republicans and Democrats with equal fervor, sharing and sharing alike.

Today, under Donald Trump, tradition is seriously compromised. The Communist Manifesto predicted the “withering away of the state,” and under Trump, we are witnessing it shrivel or loom all-powerful, depending on how you look at it.

Forget that Trump has diminished if not extinguished the government’s commitment to foreign aid, medical research, Medicaid, sensible economic regulation, the environment, and the arts.

Forget the First Amendment infraction that two late-night television political satirists have been forced off the air, with two others said to be “next” as part of the crackdown on media using libel actions and threats to block legitimate mergers and acquisitions. Trivial is the footnote that in the face of public outcry, The Walt Disney Company, ABC’s parent, has announced Jimmy Kimmel’s show is back on the air. The abridgement of free speech continues. Under pressure from the government, right-wing media company Sinclair, which operates nearly 40 ABC stations across the country, says it will not restore Kimmel’s show to the airwaves it licenses. It announced it will preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! with news programming. Nexstar, which owns roughly 30 ABC affiliates and is seeking regulatory approval from the Federal Communications Commission for its merger with Tegna, says it will follow suit.

Forget that the executive claims it has the authority to impose harsh tariffs when that power is explicitly granted to Congress by the Constitution.

Forget that Trump threatens to send the military or ICE agents to blue cities across the country to carry out law enforcement activities, even though it is illegal under the Posse Comitatus statute.

Forget that Trump has attempted to undermine the Federal Reserve’s independence by trying to fire Lisa Cook, a Biden-appointed member of the Fed’s board of governors, over a minor issue related to a mortgage application filed before she took office or that virtually all living Fed chairs and former Treasury secretaries have filed an amicus brief spelling out the grave threat posed by this president to Fed independence.

Forget that releasing all the Justice Department files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein would be a simple matter and could erase lingering suspicion about lurid details of his 15-year relationship with Trump, but most of the documents remain secret.

Forget that three Trump supporters—Trevor Milton, Carlos Watson, and Devon Archer—each convicted of securities fraud, were pardoned, potentially undoing civil penalties that could total hundreds of millions of dollars. Also, forget that the Justice Department is ignoring the investigation of Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar. Homan allegedly took a paper bag of cash, worth $50,000, to help FBI agents posing as businessmen secure government contracts related to the border.

From all this, we might swallow hard and move on.

But the final straw is that Erik Siebert, U.S. Attorney for Eastern Virginia, was forced out of office for refusing to indict Trump’s personal enemies after reviewing the facts and the law. Siebert resigned, though Trump claims he had fired him. Siebert, a seasoned lawman appointed by Trump himself, believed there was no crime to prosecute. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: “I want him out.” The issue? Siebert refused to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully went after the Trump Organization for fraud and is a key figure in much of the litigation state attorneys general are bringing against Trump. Siebert’s office was looking into Jim Comey and declined to pursue charges against him.

Siebert was a seasoned and respected career prosecutor. He began his career in 2010 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. He spent nearly 15 years prosecuting a wide range of cases, including violent crime, international and domestic drug trafficking, illegal firearms, fraud, child sexual exploitation, illegal immigration, and public corruption. Trump appointed him interim U.S. Attorney the day after his inauguration on January 21, 2025. He received awards and accolades for his prosecutions. He was a Metropolitan Police Department officer in Washington, D.C., from 2002 to 2006. His father-in-law is a former Virginia Attorney General and a counselor to Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.

Siebert had support from Virginia Republicans and the commonwealth’s Democratic U.S. Senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. They knew he was a dedicated career prosecutor. He had the respect of the judges in his district. When his 120-day interim term ended in May, the court unanimously reappointed him to continue in office.

Trump, the self-styled chief law enforcement officer of the country, has flagrantly abused his power. His conduct in seeking direct control over the hot-button cases in Pam Bondi’s Justice Department makes any parade of other horrors pale in comparison. We are living through a period of maximum danger for the nation.

Even before Siebert resigned, ABC News predicted that the administration would appoint a U.S. attorney to investigate James more aggressively. “It looks to me like [James] is very guilty of something,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week, “but I really don’t know.”

So, who would that person be, ready to do the master’s bidding? The Washington Post reported it would be Mary “Maggie” Cleary. Cleary, who has limited federal experience and has spent much of her career in the Virginia state system, joined the Justice Department’s Criminal Division in September 2025. Her LinkedIn bio states she “served in the Culpeper County Republican Committee.” She undoubtedly recognizes the immense power of the prosecutor, claiming in an essay published this year that she had been “framed” as participating in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol—an incident she says ended with her being cleared by investigators and inspiring her to pursue a U.S. attorney position.

After the Post reports on Siebert’s successor, Trump abruptly shifted his stance on Truth Social, claiming that he judged that his enemies were “all guilty as hell.” Guilty of what? If he had read the United States Code, it would probably have been the sections related to conspiracy to defraud the United States or mishandling classified documents, for which he was indicted.

Then, he proposed a different nominee, Lindsay Halligan, a “Special Assistant to the President” who has worked on the information purge at the Smithsonian. Before this, she practiced insurance law in Florida, joined his legal team, and handled her first federal case in 2022 when Mar-a-Lago was searched. She has never been involved in any prosecution. Unlike Cleary, who was somewhat qualified for an Assistant U.S. Attorney’s position, Halligan lacks the remotest experience to qualify her for this important role.

Halligan brought an indictment against Comey, and a grand jury has agreed. What now? A federal district judge might dismiss the case for lack of evidence or because this is a selective and vindictive prosecution; Trump himself has given Comey’s attorneys ammunition with his public statements. If and when the Comey case ever reaches trial, prosecutors will have the Herculean task of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt to twelve jurors when there’s a mountain of evidence that the prosecution was selective. And then there is always an appeal. What a waste of judicial resources!

And beyond the prosecutions of Comey and perhaps James, Trump’s push for indictments of his two enemies could undermine public confidence that other cases are being pursued for valid reasons.

Here’s the full text of what our president said:

And the follow-on to the purge of Siebert is the pressure on Maryland U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes, another veteran career prosecutor. Hayes has the purported mortgage fraud case against Senator Adam Schiff, another of Trump’s enemies, and the one against his former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, for mishandling classified documents. Hayes reportedly told associates that she well understood the grave consequences if she declined to bring a case against a Trump enemy because the evidence of criminality was insufficient.

If history doesn’t repeat itself, it’s said to rhyme. In 2006, President George W. Bush fired nine U.S. attorneys for what seemed like political reasons. His Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, appropriately resigned over the scandal. 

As Watergate sadly proved, politics has no place in public prosecutions.

If left unchecked, Trump will transform us into a nation where criminal law enforcement becomes a political tool for the president. We tend to mock Latin American countries as “banana republics,” implying they are places where the government suppresses opposition. However, there is much to learn from Latinos about respecting the rule of law. Argentina prosecuted its former president, Jorge Rafael Videla, for crimes committed during his regime, and Brazil did the same with its leader, Jair Messias Bolsonaro. Yet, we seem unable to do even that.

Opinion by James D. Zirin, author and legal analyst, is a former federal prosecutor in New York’s Southern District. He also hosts the public television talk show and podcast Conversations with Jim Zirin

Donald Trump and maga Republicans must read - assuming they can read- Second District of NY statement about Ghislaine Maxwell

Press Release from Tuesday June 28, 2022 from the United States Attorney's Office for the Second District of New York (SDNY)

Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Conspiring With Jeffrey Epstein To Sexually Abuse Minors.

Ghislaine Maxwell and the now deceased Jeffrey Epstein

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that GHISLANE MAXWELL was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court by United States Circuit Judge Alison J. Nathan to 240 months in prison for her role in a scheme to sexual exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade. MAXWELL was previously found guilty on December 29, 2021, following a one-month jury trial, of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Today’s sentence holds Ghislaine Maxwell accountable for perpetrating heinous crimes against children. This sentence sends a strong message that no one is above the law and it is never too late for justice. We again express our gratitude to Epstein and Maxwell’s victims for their courage in coming forward, in testifying at trial, and in sharing their stories as part of today’s sentencing.”

According to the allegations in the Indictment, court documents, and evidence presented at trial:

From at least 1994, up to and including in or about 2004, GHISLAINE MAXWELL assisted, facilitated, and participated in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to MAXWELL and Epstein to be under the age of 18. The victims were as young as 14 years old when they were groomed and abused by MAXWELL and Epstein, both of whom knew that their victims were in fact minors. As a part and in furtherance of their scheme to abuse minor victims, MAXWELL and Epstein enticed and caused minor victims to travel to Epstein’s residences in different states, which MAXWELL knew and intended would result in their grooming for and subjection to sexual abuse.

MAXWELL enticed and groomed minor girls to be abused in multiple ways. For example, MAXWELL attempted to befriend certain victims by asking them about their lives, their schools, and their families, and taking them to the movies or on shopping trips. MAXWELL also acclimated victims to Epstein’s conduct simply by being present for victim interactions with Epstein, which put victims at ease by providing the assurance and comfort of an adult woman who seemingly approved of Epstein’s behavior. Additionally, Epstein offered to help some victims by paying for travel and/or educational opportunities, and MAXWELL encouraged certain victims to accept Epstein’s assistance. As a result, victims were made to feel indebted and believed that MAXWELL and Epstein were trying to help them. MAXWELL also normalized and facilitated sexual abuse for a victim by discussing sexual topics, undressing in front of the victim, being present when the victim was undressed, and encouraging the victim to massage Epstein.

As MAXWELL and Epstein intended, these grooming behaviors left minor victims vulnerable and susceptible to sexual abuse by Epstein. MAXWELL was then present for certain sexual encounters between minor victims and Epstein, such as interactions where a minor victim was undressed, and ultimately was present for sex acts perpetrated by Epstein on minor victims. That abuse included sexualized massages during which a minor victim was fully or partially nude, as well as group sexualized massages of Epstein involving a minor victim where MAXWELL was present. In some instances, MAXWELL participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims.

Ultimately minor victims were subjected to sexual abuse that included, among other things, the touching of a victim’s breasts or genitals, placing a sex toy such as a vibrator on a victim’s genitals, directing a victim to touch Epstein while he masturbated, and directing a victim to touch Epstein’s genitals. MAXWELL and Epstein’s victims were groomed or abused at Epstein’s residences in New York, Florida, and New Mexico, as well as MAXWELL’s residence in London, England.

In the earlier phase of the conspiracy, from at least approximately 1994 through approximately 2001, MAXWELL and Epstein identified vulnerable girls, typically from single-mother households and difficult financial circumstances. This earlier phase required the defendant and Epstein to identify one girl at a time to target for grooming and abuse. In the later phase, from approximately 2001 until at least approximately 2004, MAXWELL and Epstein enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls to visit Epstein’s Palm Beach Residence to engage in sex acts with Epstein, after which Epstein, MAXWELL, or another employee of Epstein’s would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash. MAXWELL and Epstein encouraged one or more of those victims to travel with Epstein with the intention that the victim engage in sex acts with Epstein. Moreover, and in order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, MAXWELL and Epstein also paid certain victims to recruit additional girls to be similarly abused by Epstein. In this way, MAXWELL and Epstein created a network of underage victims for Epstein to sexually exploit.

* * *

In addition to the prison sentence, MAXWELL, 60, was sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $750,00 fine.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Public Corruption Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maurene Comey, Alison Moe, Lara Pomerantz, and Andrew Rohrbach are in charge of the prosecution.
Contact
Nicholas Biase
Victoria Bosah
(212) 637-2600

When Big Boss Trump is watching you- via the CIA

George Orwell (1903-1950)
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

George Orwell author of "Nineteen Eighty Four"- but, apparently, he didn't project out far enough.

What terrifies me the most about Donald Trump's new paranoia obsession with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is how he deliberately leaps to discredit the agency's credibility.  

Rather than rise up in protest against the Russian involvement in the US election, which is a fact, as far as I'm concerned, instead, Donald Trump is blaming the CIA for creating this story as though it never really happened. In other words, Donald Trump is playing mind games with the CIA and with the American people. Moreover, Trump (again) seems to get away with this and other crazy accusations.  There must be someone, somewhere who can discredit Donald Trump?  (Okay! I'm trying....I'm trying. I'll likely wind up in Guantanamo as a result.)

If Donald Trump gets away with an intimidation of the CIA, then he will undoubtedly exert his influence over all of us. In other words, by controlling espionage and clandestine operations, he will become the "Big Brother" who George Orwell warned us about in his now not so fiction novel. (English Literature review: "Big Brother" is a fictional character and symbol in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is ostensibly the leader of Oceania, a totalitarian state wherein the ruling Party wields total power "for its own sake" over the inhabitants.)

Among many George Orwell quotes, "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

Well, in my opinion, we are now living in a "time of universal deceit" because the US election of 2016, was driven by "fake news", and sabotage of the election by the Russians and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey.

If Donald Trump is given free reign to criticize the Central Intelligence Agency, without reprimand, then he will be one big leap forward towards creating a "Big Brother" society, where everyone will be under surveillance (including me!) because his universal deceit will exert control over us all.

Although a healthy dose of skepticism is acceptable in all political commentary, the fact is this: I trust the Central Intelligence Agency and its assessment of the Russians a lot more than I trust Donald Trump. In other words, Americans don't want "Big Boss Trump" watching over us.