Trump targets opponents with subpoenas, Fed fight and court cases, AP says

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Donald Trump’s administration has taken steps against a range of government officials and institutions that opposed the Republican president or resisted his agenda, according to an Associated Press review that traces subpoenas, court fights and other federal moves. The AP report links the actions to a broader pattern of targeting people whom Trump sees as enemies, and it cites Trump’s own remarks that he would “fairly apply the law” after what he described as unfair treatment by federal authorities.

A centerpiece of the AP review involves subpoenas served in Minnesota during an immigration enforcement operation across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The report says the subpoenas went to the offices of Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, as well as to other officials in the state, including Attorney General Keith Ellison, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties.

The subpoenas sought records as part of an investigation into whether state officials obstructed or impeded law enforcement during the operation, the AP reported, citing a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation. The AP said the subpoena shared by Frey’s office required a long list of documents, including “any records tending to show a refusal to come to the aid of immigration officials.”

The AP also reports that investigators tied the Minnesota subpoenas to an inquiry into whether state officials obstructed federal immigration enforcement through public statements. Walz and Frey, both Democrats, described the probe as a bullying tactic meant to quell political opposition, according to the AP.

The AP review then points to the Federal Reserve as another target in Trump’s confrontation with institutional independence. It says Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, issued an unusual video statement earlier this month in which he said the Justice Department subpoenaed the central bank and threatened criminal indictments after his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee this summer. In the AP account, Powell described the Justice Department action as a “pretext” aimed at weakening the Fed’s historic independence in setting monetary policy without political influence from the president.

The report says Powell’s testimony came after Trump criticized the Fed’s $2.5 billion office renovation project in Washington and pressed for interest-rate cuts more aggressively than the central bank preferred. The AP also notes that influential White House chief of staff Susie Wiles affirmed that Trump views the White House return as a “vengeance tour,” telling Vanity Fair, “There may be an element of that from time to time,” and, “Who would blame him? Not me.”

The AP review describes additional legal and political fights involving Federal Reserve and independent-agency officials. It says Trump sought to remove Fed Board member Lisa Cook, alleging mortgage fraud tied to work by the president’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte. The AP reports that Cook sued to keep her job and that the Supreme Court ruled last fall that she could remain on the board while her case advanced; the justices were expected to hear arguments Wednesday, the AP said, noting the court already has addressed a separate case on Trump’s power to remove officials at independent agencies.

The AP also recounts how some earlier federal actions against Trump’s opponents did not stand. It says former FBI Director James Comey survived a federal indictment that charged him with lying to Congress, after a Virginia federal judge dismissed the criminal case in November. The AP said the judge dismissed the case because the prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally appointed by the Justice Department, and that the decision meant Comey has not been cleared on the underlying charges, which could be leveled again.

In New York, the AP says Attorney General Letitia James was also spared following a similar legal problem. The report says James was indicted on federal mortgage fraud charges two weeks after Comey’s indictment last year, but that a judge threw out her case for the same reason: Halligan had been found to be illegally appointed, according to the AP. The AP adds that Trump’s Justice Department continued to pursue James but was twice rebuked in December by grand juries that declined to issue indictments after hearing evidence.

The AP review extends to other former officials. It says John Brennan’s lawyers told them they were informed the former CIA director is a target of a grand jury investigation in Florida, and it reports that the inquiry is connected to the U.S. government assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The AP says Brennan’s lawyers also sought to prevent the Justice Department from steering an investigation to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Florida jurist Trump appointed who later dismissed a classified documents case against him.

Finally, the AP describes the investigation landscape around Jack Smith and Adam Schiff. It says an ostensibly independent federal agency that investigates partisan political activity opened an investigation last summer into Smith, who led multiple Trump investigations including the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection probe. The AP says the Office of Special Counsel in Trump’s Justice Department confirmed in August that it was investigating Smith on allegations he engaged in political activity through his inquiries into Trump, and that in congressional testimony in December Smith said his team “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump criminally conspired to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Biden.

For Schiff, the AP says prosecutors in Maryland were investigating his mortgages and personal finances as of late last year, and it reports that federal authorities in November began inquiries into the roles of Ed Martin, a Justice Department official, and Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director whose name surfaced in several mortgage fraud cases discussed by Trump’s administration. The AP says Schiff has consistently said the investigation is political retribution.