On Thursday, Oct. 9, New York State Attorney General Letitia James was formally indicted for bank fraud in Virginia. The charges come as Vox Media reports that James had been subject to a “federal investigation” concerning a vacation home she owns in the state.
However, “investigators had previously been unable to find evidence that she committed a crime” nor that she intentionally altered the records she was charged with manipulating in any way.
The charges come as Donald Trump weaponizes more and more agencies and laws to target his political enemies and rivals, twisting regulations and taking a heavy “rules for thee, but not for me” approach to the federal justice system. The previous attorney for that area of Virginia, Erik Siebert, resigned under pressure from the Trump administration in late September after refusing to bring charges against James.
Trump later posted online that “he didn’t quit, I fired him!” and had previously (despite initially nominating Siebert himself in May) told reporters that he wanted Siebert “out” because of the support that he had gained from Virginia’s two Democratic senators.
Trump said, “When I saw that he got approved by those two men, I said, pull it, because he can’t be any good,” ABC News reports. He also called the two senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, “absolutely terrible, sleazebag Democrat Senators, from the Great State of Virginia” in another post online.
James’ lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told reporters that Siebert’s forced departure was a “brazen attack on the rule of law,” adding that “firing people until he finds someone who will bend the law to carry out his revenge has been the President’s pattern–and it’s illegal.”
Trump has since installed Lindsey Halligan, who was formerly his personal lawyer, according to Vox Media, to Siebert’s position. In another online post directed towards U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump asked, “What about Comey, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done…JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Halligan has since overseen the indictments of both former Director of the FBI James Comey as well as Attorney General James.
As Lowell said, “[this] sends a clear and chilling message that anyone who dares uphold the law over politics will face the same fate.” Since the very day that Trump took office again, it seems that his entire administration has been mainly focused on two things: brutally attacking America’s most vulnerable populations (in many cases at the cost of their lives) and eliminating anyone in the political sphere who disagrees with him at any cost.
Having taken the hatchet almost immediately to any and all minority populations, Trump routinely blasts anyone who dares express an opinion not exactly aligned with his, and manipulates—and even many times flagrantly ignores (see my previous coverage of his unconstitutional oversight of Immigration & Customs Enforcement)—the U.S. Constitution.
He has repeatedly attempted to eliminate birthright citizenship, one of the fundamental tenets of the 14th Amendment. He has forced entire communities at colleges, universities and K-12 schools alike to live in fear and self-censorship lest they incur his administration’s wrath.
Not even the lives of America’s vulnerable future are sacred to him; he oversaw the complete removal of the records of transgender children from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s database back in February under one of his many executive order sprees.
Even now, he continues to display a blatant disregard and apparent disdain for American democracy. In response to the massive number of Americans (more than 7 million, according to WIRED) who turned out for the nationwide “No Kings” protest on Oct. 19, he posted an AI-generated video of himself wearing a crown and flying a fighter jet labelled “King Trump” while dumping what NBC News says “appeared to be feces” on peaceful demonstrators.
Trump’s relentless attacks on the very foundations of American democracy, not to mention his apparent view of himself as some kind of monarch, clearly shows that he sees the rule of law as nothing more than a weapon that he can twist and manipulate as he likes to use against anyone whom he wishes to target.
Despite the unprecedented numbers of Americans expressing their dissent at the now two nationwide protest movements that have been sparked against his administration, Trump continues to rain political, economic and social chaos on the U.S. as he pleases.
If this country cannot see that it has elected a wannabe dictator even as he quite literally posts a video calling himself a king, what else will it not see? What will it take for America to finally, decisively stand up to him? A former board member of the NCMEC said in February, “If [America is] willing to capitulate to this, then the logical question must be asked: who’s next?”
Sabr Keres-Siddiqui is a junior majoring in Political Science and minoring in Journalism and Sociology
