January, 2026 - In another unethical break with historical precedent, Donald Trump apparently has decided to use the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hurt and/or intimidate American Citizens that Mr. Trump does not like.

Starting with President George Washington's administration, the DOJ has consistently been allowed to operate as an objective and non-partisan cabinet level department. With the possible exception of the Richard Nixon years, the DOJ has never been treated as a political tool to be used in a way that corrupt dictators regularly administer law enforcement in their countries.

Mr. Trump, though, has installed what many commentators have referred to as partisan hacks into top positions at the Justice Department. Too many of these appointees appear to be doing whatever Mr. Trump wants, whether it is appropriate/ethical/legal or not; in some cases, too many of these political appointees are willing to engage in a vendetta against Mr. Trump's political opponents, rather than utilizing the DOJ's limited resources to pursue dangerous/violent criminals or investigate large-scale white collar crimes.

(Washington set the precedent of a non-partisan DOJ. Image from britannica.com)
To date, the six most high-profile examples of this unprecedented behavior by Mr. Trump and/or the DOJ include actions against the following Citizens:

Letitia James - Ms. James is the New York Attorney General who successfully prosecuted Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization for financial fraud. The crime Ms. James allegedly committed? Lying on a mortgage application. The validity of the charge? The Trump DOJ has tried to indict Ms. James three times on that charge, all of which have been unsuccessful.

(By the way, the publication ProPublica has uncovered Trump mortgage documents from 1993, which indicate that Mr. Trump engaged in a similar, if not worse, case of lying on two of his mortgage applications. See ProPublica's December 2025 article, "Trump's Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal", or our summary of their findings at the bottom of this article.)

Adam Schiff - Mr. Schiff currently is a US Senator from California. He has been an outspoken critic of Mr. Trump's behavior as President and, while a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Schiff helped lead the effort to impeach Mr. Trump. Mr. Schiff's alleged crime? Also mortgage fraud. It is unlikely Mr. Schiff will get indicted either, though, because 1) he made sure his lender knew that Mr. Schiff needed to have homes on both coasts and 2) Mr. Schiff worked closely with the House legal staff to make sure his application for a second home followed all banking and House rules.

(Adam Schiff image from foxnews)
Lisa Cooke - Ms. Cooke is a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and has publicly opposed Mr. Trump's call for large reductions in interest rates. Her alleged crime? You guessed it: mortgage fraud.

James Comey - the former FBI director, who angered Mr. Trump by investigating Russian ties to Mr. Trump's 2016 election campaign and who, appropriately as a top law enforcement official, refused to pledge personal loyalty to Mr. Trump, was fired by Mr. Trump in 2017. (Don't forget, though, it was Mr. Comey's ham-handed approach to what proved to be Hillary Clinton's innocence in the FBI's investigation of her emails that may very well have handed the 2016 election to Donald Trump.)

(James Comey image from cnn.com)
Just days before the statute of limitations was to have run out, Mr. Trump's hand-picked prosecutor indicted Mr. Comey for lying to Congress. Mr. Trump's first choice for prosecutor in that district also had reviewed the Comey case, but did not feel the evidence strong enough to indict Mr. Comey. Consequently, that original prosecutor had refused to do so. Subsequent to the indictment brought by Prosecutor #2, the case against Mr. Comey was thrown out by the presiding judge.

John Bolton - Mr. Bolton has served in most Republican administrations going back to the Nixon years, and included a role as National Security Advisor during the first Trump administration. After the two men decided to part company in 2019, Mr. Bolton frequently has been a critic of Mr. Trump. His concerns have including not only Mr. Trump's ignorance in the area of foreign affairs, but also Mr. Trump's ignorance in just the general knowledge that any American President should possess.

(John Bolton image from nypost.com)
In October of 2025, the Trump DOJ charged Mr. Bolton with the mishandling of national security documents and information. This is similar to what Special Prosecutor Jack Smith charged former President Trump with in 2024. (Those charges were withdrawn after Mr. Trump was re-elected in 2024, following the DOJ precedent of not bringing charges against a sitting President.) Mr. Bolton has pleaded innocent to the charges against him.

Jerome Powell - Chairman Powell was appointed by Mr. Trump to head the Federal Reserve Board in 2018 and was re-nominated by President Biden in 2022. Throughout his tenure as Chairman, Mr. Powell has pursued a monetary policy strategy that he felt was best for the country, despite regular attempts by Mr. Trump to browbeat Chairman Powell to do Mr. Trump's bidding.

In January of 2026, it was announced that the Justice Department was investigating whether Mr. Powell lied to Congress during his testimony on renovations to Federal Reserve Buildings in Washington, D.C.

Following the news of the DOJ investigation, Mr. Powell responded publicly. Stating that the announcement of the DOJ probe was a pretext for pressuring the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, Mr. Powell agreed with virtually everyone else's take on the investigation: The DOJ was acting politically and dangerously in pursuing their actions against Mr. Powell.

(Jerome Powell image from abcnews)
To paraphrase commentators more knowledgeable than us on American history, Mr. Trump's apparent vendetta against his political opponents would have our Founding Fathers turning over in their graves. After taking on King George and establishing an independent country, the last thing those brave men of 1776 wanted to allow was an American President who behaved like a king.

Summary of the ProPublica Article

For those of you who did not read the ProPublica article discussing Mr. Trump's alleged mortgage fraud, here are the brief details from that article:

In 1993, Mr. Trump bought a house that was adjacent to his Mar-a-Lago summer home in Florida. Seven weeks later, Mr. Trump bought a second house adjacent to Mar-a-Lago. On each mortgage application, Mr. Trump stated that he would be living in the house for at least a year as his principle residence. These statements allowed him to qualify for better terms on his mortgage than he otherwise would have received had he bought the houses for investment purposes.

What happened after he acquired the properties, though, appears to conflict with Mr. Trump's legal intent as stated on those mortgage applications. To quote the ProPublica article:

"In reality, Trump, then a New Yorker, does not appear to have ever lived in either home, let alone used them as a principal residence. Instead, the two houses, which are next to his historic Mar-a-Lago estate, were used as investment properties and rented out, according to contemporaneous news accounts and an interview with his longtime real estate agent - exactly the sort of scenario his administration has pointed to as evidence of fraud."

(One of Mr. Trump's Palm Beach houses referenced in the ProPublica article. Image from that article and usatoday.)

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