A sharp picture of the personal nature of Trump's disregard for the rule of law and U.S. attorney resigns under pressure from Trump to charge N.Y. AG Letitia James

 https://www.lawdork.com/p/trump-disregard-rule-of-law-it-is-personal

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/20/nx-s1-5547837/us-attorney-virginia-resigns-letitia-james-probe

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A sharp picture of the personal nature of Trump's disregard for the rule of law

Allegations against Trump's "border czar" and DOJ, TikTok shenanigans, and Trump's Virginia federal prosecutor manipulations. 

By Chris Geidner

The lawless actions of the Trump administration have been on stark display this weekend in ways that highlight how that lawlessness is used to personally benefit President Donald Trump, his allies, and his political goals.

The weekend’s lawlessness came following a week that featured an unending attack on the First Amendment and freedom of expression paired with continued capitulation by both other branches of government and so-called titans of industry.

And yet, the clown-car incompetence of the Trump administration, combined with their insistence on overstepping at every point, has put roadblocks in their path to Trump’s fascist goals and made it easier for his opposition to gain a foothold across the nation.

Trump and his policies are more unpopular by the day. People — including those with authority — need to say so, loudly, and act accordingly.

As Pete Buttigieg put it, directly and simply:

Pete Buttigieg

@petebuttigieg.bsky.social

Donald Trump is way less popular than he wants you to believe. And you are significantly more powerful than he wants you to think.

Sep 20, 2025 at 10:40 AM

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Nonetheless, the display of lawlessness for political and personal ends this weekend has been alarming, even for this administration. It is key to see and understand — both to know what is going on, but also to understand how to push back.

Three stories from this weekend alone — one uncovered this weekend, another that has been moving along throughout the year, and a final one still developing — show the breadth of how Trump’s efforts to subvert the rule of law are connected to his political and personal aims.

In a story alleging that the Justice Department shut down an investigation of Trump “border czar” Tom Homan despite the FBI having earlier recorded Homan “accepting $50,000 in cash” from agents “posing as business executives,” veteran journalists Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian reported at MSNBC:

Shortly after Trump’s inauguration, however, in either late January or February 2025, former acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove was briefed on the case and told Justice Department officials he did not support the investigation, according to two people familiar with the case.

Bove took a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit — despite being entirely inappropriate for a judicial role — on September 2, the fifth judicial nominee confirmed in Trump’s second term.

And Homan continues to be one of the most toxic men in Trump’s inner-orbit — and that’s saying something.

If the MSNBC report is correct, this is a pretty blatant story of Trump’s people using the law to protect Trump’s people.

Also over the weekend, news has emerged, piece by piece, about Trump’s plans to have his right-wing allies control the ownership of TikTok in America. This would, of course, be alarming on its own. In the context of Trump’s actions thus far on this matter, however, it presents another example of Trump running roughshod over the rule of law to reach his preferred outcome.

Under a law passed by Congress in 2024, which the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld against a First Amendment challenge earlier this year, TikTok would have been effectively banned as of mid-January. Under the law, the president was authorized to give one 90-day extension before the ban went into effect — and, even then, only if he determined “significant progress” toward a sale had been made.

Trump did no such thing. Instead, and since his first day back in office, Trump has simply ignored the law — with Attorney General Pam Bondi backing him with a claim that Trump has the constitutional authority to ignore the law and allow TikTok to keep operating. Trump has continued with this lawlessness, apparently until he could convince his allies to buy it.

This, then, appears to be a case of Trump using (or, more specifically, ignoring) the law to manipulate the market — and, ultimately, exert further control over public discourse.

The final development is one of Trump seeking to use the law to go after those who are not his people.

Following Friday’s ouster of Erik Siebert as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Trump made his larger plans perfectly clear. Although Siebert resigned, there had already been reporting that Trump wanted to fire him due to his refusal to issue politically motivated indictments where he found no evidence to support such indictments.

On Saturday evening, as Kyle Cheney reported, Trump published a post on Truth social directed to “Pam” — Bondi — in which he claimed to have fired the unnamed Siebert; suggested it was because he “said … that we had no case,” after having referenced targets of his retributive ire, including former FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff, and New York Attorney General Letitia James; and wrote that “Lindsey Halligan … likes” Bondi “a lot,” in telling Bondi, “We can’t delay any longer ….”

It was not clear, first of all, whether this initial message was supposed to be public. Trump deleted the first post, which lacked Halligan’s last name. It had, of course, been noted and screen-grabbed, so — regardless of whether it was intended to be public — he then re-posted:

An hour later, suggesting a clean-up move after the prior two posts, Trump posted a third time to say that Bondi is “doing a GREAT job” and that he “will be nominating“ Halligan, another of his former personal lawyers, to be the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia:

Two hours after that, in a fourth post, Trump claimed that he was “appoint[ing]” Halligan “as” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, although he can’t do that.

Under federal law, there are three possible steps (aside from Senate confirmation) for filling a U.S. Attorney vacancy. Bondi could name Halligan as U.S. Attorney for 120 days under one federal law specific to such vacancies. Alternatively, under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, the First Assistant in the office would automatically “perform the functions and duties of the office temporarily in an acting capacity“ once the vacancy occurred or Trump could name certain people within the Department of Justice — which would not include Halligan — as the acting U.S. Attorney.

In short, none of those three permit Trump to appoint Halligan to be U.S. Attorney without Senate confirmation. And, as this Washington Post report from 2022, when she first appeared on Trump’s legal team after the Mar-a-Lago raid, suggests, Halligan is not in any way qualified to run any U.S. Attorney’s Office, let alone one home to some of the most significant national security cases in the country:

As of Sunday evening, the Justice Department’s website provided no clarity, as Siebert was still listed as running the office.

Despite how alarming these developments are, I do want to note how these stories also highlight that telltale incompetence paired with overstepping: An ally allegedly accepted cash from undercover agents but DOJ dropped the case when Trump returned to office, Trump and Bondi are blatantly ignoring a federal law until Trump finds the right scheme to benefit himself and his aims, and a night of Trump posting repeatedly about his explicit aims for vengeance prosecutions.

These are actions that raise alarm bells to any rational person — even the most casual of observer — when they are presented with the facts.

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U.S. attorney resigns under pressure from Trump to charge N.Y. AG Letitia James

September 20, 20258:01 AM ET

By 

The Associated Press

Erik Siebert, then interim U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, speaks at a news conference on March 27 at an FBI field office in Manassas, Va. Siebert resigned Friday after President Trump said he wanted him "out" after the U.S. attorney's mortgage fraud investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James failed to result in criminal charges.

Rod Lamkey/AP

WASHINGTON — A federal prosecutor in Virginia whose monthslong mortgage fraud investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James has not resulted in criminal charges resigned Friday under pressure from the Trump administration.

Erik Siebert confirmed his departure in an email to colleagues, reviewed by The Associated Press, in which he praised them as the "finest and most exceptional" of Justice Department employees but made no mention of the political turmoil that preceded his resignation.

The replacement of Siebert as U.S. attorney for the prestigious Eastern District of Virginia office comes amid a push by Trump administration officials to indict James, a perceived adversary of the president who has successfully sued him for fraud. President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he wanted Siebert "out" and multiple people familiar with the matter later told the AP that Siebert had informed his colleagues of his plan to resign from the position.

The administration's effort to oust him from the job represents a further erosion of norms meant to insulate the Justice Department from White House influence on prosecutorial decisions. The move is likely to deepen concerns that the department — already investigating other public figures Trump regards as foes — is being weaponized by a White House seeking to have its prosecutorial powers used for purposes of retribution.

It was not immediately clear Friday afternoon who would replace Siebert, who was nominated by Trump to the top job in the office this year after having worked there for more than a decade. Siebert's top deputy, Maya Song, is also leaving her position as first assistant U.S. attorney and will work as a line prosecutor, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

Justice Department spokespeople declined to comment.

Trump administration officials have been aggressively pursuing allegations against James arising from alleged paperwork discrepancies on her Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia home. The Justice Department has spent months conducting the investigation but has yet to bring charges, and there's been no indication that prosecutors have managed to uncover any degree of incriminating evidence that could support bringing an indictment. 

Asked about the issue at the White House Friday, Trump, without citing any evidence, said, "It looks to me like she's really guilty of something, but I really don't know." Trump also said he was bothered that Siebert had been supported by the state's two Democratic senators.

James' lawyers have vigorously denied any allegations and characterized the investigation as an act of political revenge.

ABC News was first to report that Trump administration officials were pressuring prosecutors to bring charges and that the Republican administration was preparing to oust Siebert.

James has long been a particular source of outrage for Trump, in part because of a lawsuit she filed against him and his company that resulted in a massive financial penalty last year. That penalty was thrown out last month by an appeals court that narrowly upheld a judge's finding that Trump had engaged in fraud by exaggerating his wealth for decades.

The case has taken a series of unorthodox turns. It emerged last month that Ed Martin, who leads the Justice Department's Weaponization Working Group and is helping coordinate the investigation, had sent a letter urging James to resign from office "as an act of good faith" after starting his mortgage fraud investigation of her. He later turned up outside James' Brooklyn townhouse in a "Columbo"-esque trench coat. A New York Post writer at the scene observed him tell a neighbor: "I'm just looking at houses, interesting houses. It's an important house."

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7oQuMaTDz0

 

James' lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told Martin in a letter that the request for James' resignation defied Justice Department standards and codes of professional responsibility and legal ethics.

The Justice Department "has firm policies against using investigations and against using prosecutorial power for achieving political ends," Lowell wrote. "This is ever more the case when that demand is made to seek political revenge against a public official in the opposite party."

A former District of Columbia police officer, Siebert joined the Eastern District of Virginia, an elite Justice Department prosecution office with a history of sophisticated national security and criminal cases, in 2010. He was nominated to the role of U.S. attorney by Trump this year with the backing of the state's two Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.

The office has separately been involved in investigating matters related to the years-old investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, a longstanding grievance of the president. No charges have been announced as part of that work.

Although U.S. attorneys are presidential appointees, they are rarely fired. But the Trump administration has repeatedly disregarded norms and traditions meant to protect Justice Department prosecutors from White House political influence.

 

 

 

Prosecutors and other support personnel who worked on the special counsel team of Jack Smith that investigated and prosecuted Trump have been fired, as was Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor in New York whose father, former FBI Director James Comey, was terminated by Trump months into his first term amid the Russia election interference investigation.

Martin's investigation stems from a letter Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi in April asking her to investigate and consider prosecuting James, alleging she had "falsified bank documents and property records."

Pulte, whose agency regulates mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cited "media reports" claiming James had falsely listed a Virginia home as her principal residence, and he suggested she may have been trying to avoid higher interest rates that often apply to second homes.

Records show James was listed as a co-borrower on a house her niece was buying in 2023. Lowell said records and correspondence easily disproved Pulte's allegation. While James signed a power-of-attorney form that, Lowell said, "mistakenly stated the property to be Ms. James' principal residence," she sent an email to her mortgage loan broker around the same time that made clear the property "WILL NOT be my primary residence."