A US judge on Monday dealt a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to prosecute perceived political adversaries, dismissing charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey.
The ruling said the prosecutor overseeing their cases was appointed unlawfully, rejecting arguments the Trump administration has used to install loyalists as prosecutors across the country. Trump’s push to exact legal revenge on opponents has fueled an exodus of Department of Justice lawyers, The Guardian reported, and more than half of Americans believe such prosecutions are “unjustified,” a poll found.
But the setbacks are unlikely to deter Trump’s retribution campaign: The Pentagon is probing a Democratic senator who urged troops to defy “illegal orders.”