The Justice Department’s attempt to turn political grievance into criminal prosecution has begun to look like a stretched rubber band—snapped back by federal judges who aren’t buying the theatrics.
It all came to a head when Lindsey Halligan, thrust into the role of interim U.S. attorney in Virginia with barely enough time to find the light switch, walked into a grand jury room alone. Her mission: deliver an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime fixture on the president’s enemies list.
She got the indictment—technically. But what followed was a slow-motion collapse, the kind that starts with a single loose bolt and ends with the whole machine rattling apart in public view.
Judges began listing the problems like they were reading off a grocery receipt. Wrong procedures. Wrong authority. Wrong assumptions about how far political muscle can bend the legal system. By Monday, cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James were tossed out altogether.
The final blow came from a federal judge who declared Halligan’s appointment legally defective. Attempts to retroactively fix that problem were shot down with an icy warning: the government cannot simply pluck someone off the street, give them a badge after the fact, and pretend the rules were followed.
And this wasn’t the only wreckage. Other cases pushed forward in service of the president’s crusade have sputtered. Grand juries refused to indict. Trial juries refused to convict. One judge even found indications that a prosecution of a wrongfully deported migrant may have been retaliatory.
Still, the Justice Department isn’t backing down. Appeals are coming. Other investigations remain open—into former national security adviser John Bolton, into allegations tied to Senator Adam Schiff, into claims targeting Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, and into a group of Democratic lawmakers who angered the president by publicly reminding soldiers they need not follow unlawful orders.
Across these cases, the pattern is starting to look unmistakable. The push for retribution is real. But so is the resistance inside courtrooms, where legal standards—not political fantasies—get the last word.
