MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Over the weekend, President Trump had a message for Attorney General Pam Bondi.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
In a post on social media, Trump pressured Bondi to investigate his perceived political rivals.
MARTIN: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is following this, and he's with us now from our studios. Good morning, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So before we get into what this means, could you just bring us up to speed on what actually happened? So what did the president say?
LUCAS: Right. Trump put out a post on social media on Saturday night addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi by name. And in the post, Trump mentions three people he views as his political enemies - former FBI Director James Comey, California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff and New York State Attorney General Letitia James. And Trump said they are all guilty. Doesn't say what of, only that they're guilty, and that nothing is being done about it. He said, quote, "we can't delay any longer. It's killing our reputation and credibility," end quote. Trump added that he was impeached twice. He was indicted multiple times, which is referring, of course, to the prosecutions that Trump faced after he left office the first time, including the two federal cases - one for allegedly mishandling classified documents, the other for trying to overturn the 2020 election. Trump said in his post that all of that was baseless and that, quote, "justice must be served, now."
MARTIN: So this post came right after other consequential news out of the Justice Department. The top federal prosecutor in Northern Virginia left his post under pressure from President Trump. So what can you tell us about that?
LUCAS: That's right. This is Erik Siebert. He was a career federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, right outside of D.C. Trump had tapped him to lead the office, and it's an important office. They do a lot of big national security cases there, for example. In that job, Siebert had been overseeing an investigation into New York State Attorney General Letitia James, one of the people Trump declared guilty in the post I was just talking about. James won a civil fraud suit last year against Trump and his company with a massive financial penalty, although the penalty has since been voided. Now, Siebert had expressed doubts about moving forward with charges in that case. Trump was open about wanting Siebert gone. And on social media, Trump said Siebert had said there was no case. Trump said there's a great case, seeming to confirm that Siebert was forced out for not moving forward against James.
MARTIN: And is somebody replacing him in that office? Do we know who that is?
LUCAS: Yes. Trump named Lindsey Halligan as the replacement. She is someone with no prosecutorial experience, but Halligan has been working as an aide in the White House. Before that, she served as a personal attorney for Trump. Now, the president said on social media that Halligan will be fair, smart and provide desperately needed justice for all. And he also said that that office needs a tough prosecutor to, quote, "get things moving."
MARTIN: So what do these developments over the weekend say about the Justice Department in this second Trump administration?
LUCAS: Well, look, Trump talked openly during the 2024 campaign about going after his perceived political enemies if he returned to office. He's never toned that down. But this is arguably the most direct, since he's been back in the White House, that he has urged the Justice Department to use the enormous powers that it has to go after specific people who he doesn't like. You also have him forcing out a U.S. attorney who wasn't doing that. Now, for decades, there's been a norm against this very sort of thing. Traditionally, the Justice Department is independent from the White House when it comes to investigations and prosecutions. And the reason for that is so that decisions in such instances do not appear and are not driven by politics instead of the facts and the law. So these developments over the weekend, yet again, are fueling already significant concerns about this administration and the weaponization of the Justice Department.
MARTIN: That is NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thank you.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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