September 21, 2025 · Constitutional Order & Rule of Law
· news
Confirmed
Comey Indicted, Schiff Investigated After Trump Pressures DOJ to Prosecute Critics
In late September 2025, days after Trump publicly urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James, a federal grand jury indicted Comey on charges of making a false statement and obstructing a congressional proceeding tied to 2020 Senate testimony. Lindsey Halligan, a Trump-appointed acting U.S. attorney with no prior prosecutorial experience, brought the case over objections from career prosecutors who had found insufficient probable cause.
Separately, Schiff faced a DOJ investigation into alleged mortgage-related insurance fraud, opened after Bondi named a special prosecutor; Schiff's attorney called the allegations "stale" and "debunked." Schiff described the Comey indictment as a sign the department had become "an arm of the president's retribution campaign."
Legal scholars said the sequence, a president publicly naming targets followed swiftly by indictments, marked an unusual and direct assertion of presidential influence over individual prosecutorial decisions. The Comey case was later dismissed in November 2025 after a judge found Halligan's appointment unlawful.
Separately, Schiff faced a DOJ investigation into alleged mortgage-related insurance fraud, opened after Bondi named a special prosecutor; Schiff's attorney called the allegations "stale" and "debunked." Schiff described the Comey indictment as a sign the department had become "an arm of the president's retribution campaign."
Legal scholars said the sequence, a president publicly naming targets followed swiftly by indictments, marked an unusual and direct assertion of presidential influence over individual prosecutorial decisions. The Comey case was later dismissed in November 2025 after a judge found Halligan's appointment unlawful.