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Photo: Lev Radin/ZUMA/Reuters

If Donald Trump was actually interested in a successful prosecution of New York attorney general Letitia James, he’d have handled it all very differently. He would have authorized a wide-ranging investigation of anything fishy about her conduct or her associations, kept his distance from it, and encouraged the development of an airtight case by credible prosecutors. And indeed, as recently as August, the Trump Justice Department seemed to be working on allegations of civil rights violations by James in her aggressive pursuit of Republicans and conservatives, including Trump himself.

But instead of letting a strong case against James mature, Trump jumped the gun very publicly. On September 20, he published a Truth Social post telling Attorney General Pam Bondi to get a move on in indicting his political enemies, including James (along with James Comey and Adam Schiff). That same day, Trump dumped his nominee for U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where the relevant cases arose, apparently for refusing to instantly indict James. Trump quickly installed former personal attorney Lindsay Halligan in the position. When Halligan predictably secured a hasty grand jury indictment of James as Trump ordered, it wasn’t for some carefully prepared and deeply serious case. The case involves shaky mortgage-fraud claims ginned up by Trump’s Housing Finance director, Bill Pulte.

It’s all very ramshackle, as the New York Times reports:

Career federal prosecutors in Virginia found little evidence to indicate Ms. James knowingly misled banks or was dishonest in her loan paperwork, according to people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

[James attorney Abbe] Lowell said Thursday evening that he was “deeply concerned that this case is driven by President Trump’s desire for revenge.”

That’s certainly the impression Trump has worked hard to create. His conduct prior to this indictment seems designed to court the appearance of impropriety, making the point of the whole exercise a demonstration of his power to pursue — if you will excuse the expression — trumped-up charges to harass and intimidate enemies, much as he did so very often in civil litigation he initiated during his business career, when he filed over 4,000 lawsuits. Now he has the Department of Justice at his disposal, and he’s using them as his own legal hit squad, after hiring quite a few personal lawyers (like Halligan) to become federal prosecutors.

Perhaps simple thirst for vengeance is the president’s motive, but he also seems very concerned about disappointing his MAGA base, to whom he promised trophies in the investigation, prosecution and jailing of all the people alleged to have persecuted him and his followers during his first term as president and especially during his four years in the wilderness. As Trump said in his furious post aimed at Bondi’s foot-dragging, the failure to indict his enemies is “killing our reputation and credibility.” So it’s speed and aggressiveness that matter, not the ultimate outcome, which is likely to be a quick dismissal of the indictment of James or a trial ending adversely for the government.

It has often been observed that the president approaches conflicts with the instincts of a mob boss, one whose most precious commodity is the knowledge that he will strike remorselessly against anyone who crosses him or his enterprise. Everyone now knows he is going to the mattresses in pursuit of his Democratic tormenters. Probably nothing else matters to him in these circumstances. It’s a shame taxpayers have to support his power flexing and professional prosecutors have to go along with it or find another line of work.

The Trump DoJ’s Letitia James Indictment Is Just a Show of Power

The Trump DoJ’s Letitia James Indictment Is Just a Show of Power