The Reddest of Lines

It’s always been about the vengeance

This inspires condfidence

Donald never forgets a slight, no matter how insignificant. He spends a not inconsiderable amount of energy holding onto his grudges. No matter how many years or decades ago the perceived transgression took place, he will move to seek retribution against anybody he thinks wronged him—by criticizing him, telling the truth about him, or trying to hold him accountable. Thanks to an almost total impunity afforded to him by a suppliant Republican Party and the corrupt, illegitimate Supreme Court, and his increased sense of the failures, humiliations, and loss of control he experiences daily, his thirst for revenge has a new urgency.

Currently, Donald has been ordering his Department of Justice to launch investigations into his perceived political enemies regardless of whether there is any evidence of their having committed wrongdoing. In fact, it looks like he’s asking the Attorney General and others in the DOJ to fabricate evidence. This is an autocratic ploy made more dangerous by the fact that Bondi will almost certainly accede to Donald’s wishes, something Donald fully expects her to do.

It no longer matters that Attorneys General of the United States are supposed to be independent agents who do not take orders from the president, but this is where things stand: either Bondi ignores Donald’s directives, in which case she’ll almost certainly be fired and replaced with somebody even more pliable; or, the much likelier scenario, she’ll follow Donald’s orders in contravention of her oath, her office, and the rule of law.

Donald has also been bragging about firing Eric Siebert, now-former head of the Eastern District of Virginia, whom he described as a

Democrat [sic] supported US attorney in Virginia with a really bad Republican past a woke RINO who was never going to do his job. That’s why two of the worst Dem senators pushed him so hard. He even lied to the media and said he quit and that we had no case. No, I fired him and there was a great case and many lawyers and legal pundits say so.

Siebert refused to cave to pressure from the White House to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud (the same charge used against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to get her fired) because there wasn’t sufficient evidence to do so.

Siebert says he resigned, but whether he was fired or he resigned is irrelevant, although I believe Siebert’s version of events. A federal prosecutor whom Donald nominated and who’d just been confirmed to his post with bipartisan support, was forced out simply because he refused to pursue a case that has no legal merit. Ruth Marcus, writing in The New Yorker, warned about the grave danger this dismissal poses:

Firing a prosecutor for refusing to pursue a political opponent without a sufficient legal basis crosses the reddest of lines. The DOJ’S manual for federal prosecutors sets out the standards for determining when to bring a case. The prosecutor may seek charges only if she believes that the person will more likely than not be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by an unbiased trier of fact, and that the conviction will be upheld on appeal pursuing a case that fails to meet that standard is unethical.

In Siebert’s place, Donald has appointed as interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, an erstwhile insurance lawyer and formerly one of his defense attorneys. Halligan has no prosecutorial experience. Her only three appearances in federal court came while representing Donald. By contrast, Siebert participated as an attorney in 675 federal cases. The district Halligan is now tasked with overseeing is among the most important and staffs more than 300 prosecutors.

She has immediately gotten down to the business of taking up Donald’s cause. In addition to the Letitia James case, it looks as if charges might be brought against James Comey over allegations that he lied to Congress. Donald’s fury at Comey stems from the former FBI director’s contention that Russia did, indeed, interfere in the 2016 presidential election to benefit Donald Trump—this despite the fact that Comey is largely responsible for handing Donald the 2016 election.

Donald will not stop there. He is remaking the DOJ in his image with the help of people like Pam Bondi and her deputies, Emil Bove and Todd Blanche. While Donald is using the DOJ to prosecute his perceived enemies, even if the only crime they’re guilty of is telling the truth or doing their jobs, he’s ignoring actual crimes committed by his own people.

MSNBC broke the story about Tom Homan accepting $50,000 in cash from FBI agents posing as business executives in exchange for promises he would send government contracts their way after Donald’s inauguration in January 2025. Donald’s DOJ decided not to pursue the case and there has been no further investigation.

There is literally no reason to think that Homan is not guilty of taking bribes. This is exactly the kind of person Donald wants in his orbit--loyalists who are just as corrupt, who operate as if the law does not apply to them, and who, in many cases, would be in jail without Donald’s protection just as Donald would be in jail if it weren’t for the protection he’s received from the corrupt illegitimate super majority of the Supreme Court.

When asked about Homan’s case being dismissed by Todd Blanche and Kash Patel, Press Secretary Levitt did what she does best. She lied.

Well, Mr. Holman never took the $50,000 that you’re referring to, so you should get your facts straight. Number one. Number two, this was another example of the weaponization of the Biden Department of Justice against one of [Donald’s] strongest and most vocal supporters. In the midst of a presidential campaign, you had FBI agents going undercover to try and entrap one of the president’s top allies and supporters. Someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position. Months later, Mr. Holman did absolutely nothing wrong, and even the President’s Department of Justice, even Kash Patel’s FBI looked into this just to make sure they had a number of different prosecutors and FBI agents who looked into this. They found zero evidence of illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing and the White House and [Donald] stand by Tom Holman, 100% because he did absolutely nothing wrong, and he is a brave public servant who has done a phenomenal job in helping the [Donald] shut down the border.

Tom Homan is a pathetic thug leading a small army of brown shirts to commit atrocities and violate the rights of immigrants and undocumented workers. He took a bribe and the DOJ covered it up because he’s doing Donald’s bidding. The Trump regime is the very swamp Donald pretended he would drain and it’s getting wider, deeper, and dirtier every day.