Donald Trump promised in his second inaugural address to “fairly apply the law,” saying that the “vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.” Since then, an Associated Press review says Trump’s administration has taken steps against a range of elected and appointed officials who opposed the Republican president or did not grant his wishes.
The most recent example described by AP centers on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Powell, in a video statement, said the Justice Department has subpoenaed the central bank and threatened criminal indictments. He also said the move is a “pretext” aimed at weakening the Fed’s historic independence in setting monetary policy without political influence from the president.
AP said Powell’s comments came after his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee this summer and after Trump had criticized the Federal Reserve’s $2.5 billion office renovation project in Washington. In its review, AP said Powell pushed back on that criticism, writing that Trump’s pressure and personal insults were matters Powell had previously dealt with while emphasizing the Fed’s independent status. AP described the Justice Department’s inquiry and Powell’s video statement as an escalation in Trump’s battle with the central bank and a continuing strain on U.S. checks and balances.
The AP review also connected the Fed fight to Trump’s public statements about the Justice Department. AP reported that Trump told NBC News over the weekend that he knew nothing about a Justice Department inquiry into the Fed’s ongoing construction project in Washington. It also cited White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who told Vanity Fair that Trump’s return to the White House may sometimes carry an element of vengeance, saying, “There may be an element of that from time to time.” AP reported that Wiles added, “Who would blame him? Not me.”
Beyond Powell, the AP review described how Trump targeted Lisa Cook, another Federal Reserve board member. AP said that before the latest subpoena, Trump tried to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud pushed by the president’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte. AP reported that it was the first time in 112 years that a president sought to remove a Fed governor. Cook, a 2022 appointee of President Joe Biden and the first Black woman on the seven-member board, sued to keep her job, AP said.
AP reported that the Supreme Court ruled last fall that Cook could remain on the board as her case advances, and that the court is expected to hear arguments in January. AP also said the Supreme Court has already heard a separate case on Trump’s power to remove officials at independent agencies. AP said the Cook litigation is ongoing even as the administration pursued its effort to remove her.
The AP review then turned to the criminal case involving former FBI Director James Comey, who had been indicted for lying to Congress. It said Comey, whom Trump fired during Trump’s first administration, was the first former senior government official to face prosecution after being involved in one of the president’s chief grievances: the long-concluded investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
AP said Trump appeared to encourage Attorney General Pam Bondi to punish Comey around the time of the indictment, citing a social media post in which Trump named Bondi and said, “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” A federal judge in Virginia dismissed the criminal case against Comey in November, AP said, finding that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan, who brought the charges, was illegally appointed by the Justice Department. AP said that dismissal does not clear Comey and that prosecutors could level charges again in a renewed case.
The review also described actions taken against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has been a long-running Trump target since winning a civil fraud case against him in 2024. AP said the civil fraud fine was later tossed out by a higher court while both sides continued to appeal, and that Trump’s Justice Department pursued James afterward. AP reported that James was indicted on federal mortgage fraud charges two weeks after Comey’s indictment and that her case was thrown out by the same Virginia-based judge for the same reason given in Comey’s case.
AP said Trump’s Justice Department continued to go after James even after the dismissals, and that grand juries in December twice declined to issue indictments after hearing evidence from federal prosecutors. It added that a separate federal judge, in James’ home state, disqualified another prosecutor—John Sarcone—after ruling that Sarcone was not lawfully serving as an acting U.S. attorney in the Northern District of New York.
The AP review described other investigations involving former officials. It said John Brennan’s lawyers told AP that they were informed he is a target of a grand jury investigation in Florida. AP said the inquiry is related to the U.S. government assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election. It also said Brennan’s lawyers wrote that they wanted the Justice Department prevented from steering an investigation of him and other former government officials to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, the Florida jurist appointed by Trump who later dismissed a classified documents case against Brennan.
The review also covered Jack Smith, the former prosecutor who led multiple investigations into Trump. AP said an ostensibly independent federal agency that investigates political activity of federal employees opened an investigation last summer into Smith’s conduct, with the Office of Special Counsel confirming in August that it was investigating him. In congressional testimony in December, AP reported, Smith did not back down, saying his team “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that the president criminally conspired to overturn his 2020 election defeat to President Joe Biden. AP quoted Smith as saying, “I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” and that “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required.”
Finally, AP said the review includes an investigation into California Sen. Adam Schiff. It said Schiff’s mortgages and personal finances are under scrutiny, with prosecutors in Maryland conducting the investigation as of late last year. AP also described a separate investigation into the investigators, reporting that in November federal authorities began inquiries about the roles of Ed Martin, a Justice Department official, and Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director whose name has surfaced in several mortgage fraud cases described by Trump’s administration. It said Schiff has consistently said the investigation against him is political retribution, and that the scrutiny into his finances has become part of the broader dispute described in the review.
Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.