Trump Administration’s Retribution Campaign: Indictments, Investigations, and Revoked Protections Target Opponents

The Trump administration has launched investigations, indictments, and administrative actions against dozens of political opponents since President Trump returned to office in 2025. Critics call it retribution. The administration calls it law enforcement.

Here’s what’s actually happened.

The Breakdown

• James Comey, former FBI Director: Indicted in North Carolina in April over an Instagram post showing “86 47” written in seashells, which prosecutors say was a threat against Trump. He was previously indicted in September 2025 on charges later dismissed after a judge ruled the appointment of U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan — Trump’s former defense attorney with no prosecutorial experience — was invalid. Trial tentatively scheduled for October.
• Letitia James, New York Attorney General: Indicted in October 2025 on bank fraud charges after Halligan presented mortgage fraud allegations to a grand jury. James, who brought a $454 million civil fraud case against Trump in 2022, pleaded not guilty. The case was dismissed on the same grounds as Comey’s — Halligan’s invalid appointment.
• John Bolton, former National Security Adviser: Pleaded guilty in June to one count of illegal retention of national security information and will pay a $2.25 million fine. He faces up to five years in prison at his October sentencing. Bolton called the indictment politically motivated retribution for his tell-all book about Trump’s first administration. Unlike other cases, this one was investigated by career prosecutors and began before Trump took office.
• Six Democratic members of Congress: The D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office in February sought but failed to secure an indictment against Sen. Mark Kelly, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Rep. Maggie Goodlander, Rep. Jason Crow, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, and Rep. Chris DeLuzio after Trump accused them of “seditious behavior” punishable by death for posting a video telling service members they could refuse illegal orders. A grand jury declined to indict — exceedingly rare after prosecutors present a case. The Defense Department launched a review of Kelly and later censured him; a federal judge blocked the punishment in February, ruling it violated his free-speech rights.
• Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve Chair: Federal prosecutors launched a criminal investigation in January into Powell’s 2025 congressional testimony about the Fed building renovation. A judge threw out the subpoenas in March, writing there was “abundant evidence” the investigation’s dominant purpose was to harass Powell into yielding to Trump’s pressure to lower interest rates. DOJ dropped the investigation in April.
• Lisa Cook, Federal Reserve Board member: Trump said he was firing Cook over mortgage fraud allegations — no president had ever attempted to remove a Fed governor in the Fed’s 112-year history. A federal judge blocked the attempt; the Supreme Court affirmed that decision 5-4 in June. Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, who raised the allegations, posted after the ruling: “I believe Lisa Cook will be indicted for mortgage fraud.”
• Adam Schiff, California Senator: Investigated by DOJ for alleged insurance fraud related to a Maryland property. Schiff, who served as lead manager during Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019, called the allegations “transparently false, stale, and long debunked.”
• Jack Smith, Special Counsel: Investigated by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel over whether his classified-documents and Jan. 6 probes of Trump violated the Hatch Act. Trump called Smith “a criminal.” Smith testified before the House Judiciary Committee in December and January, arguing his actions were “based on what the facts and the law required.”
• Gavin Newsom, California Governor: Said in June that DOJ is investigating him and his wife. Federal agents have knocked on doors of family, friends, and former employees, Newsom said. Investigators in California began examining his wife’s taxes in 2025. Newsom said Trump is “coming after me because I’m considering running for president.”
• George Soros and Open Society Foundations: Multiple top federal prosecutors at U.S. attorney’s offices in at least seven states received a directive in September to prepare investigations into the Open Society Foundations after Trump called in August for George Soros and his son Alex to be charged with racketeering. The letter listed potential charges ranging from material support of terrorism to wire fraud.
• Tim Walz, Minnesota Governor, and Jacob Frey, Minneapolis Mayor: Both are subject to a federal investigation into the degree their state has cooperated with federal immigration enforcement. A federal judge in June tossed out multiple DOJ subpoenas, finding they were “part of a broader campaign to coerce state and local officials” that “played out against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s well-established history of using criminal investigations to retaliate against and pressure the President’s political and personal adversaries.”
• Joe Biden, former President: Trump ordered then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate whether Biden administration members conspired to cover up lapses in Biden’s mental state and whether Biden illegally used an autopen to sign executive actions. Biden denied the allegations.
• John Brennan, former CIA Director: Prosecutors in Florida are investigating whether Brennan lied to Congress about a 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The probe is part of a larger investigation examining whether former officials engaged in a “grand conspiracy” to violate Trump’s rights dating back to his 2016 campaign. A top career prosecutor in Miami was removed from overseeing the investigation after she allegedly expressed doubts about its viability.
• E. Jean Carroll, columnist: DOJ launched a criminal investigation in May into whether Carroll committed perjury during civil lawsuits in which she accused Trump of sexual assault. Trump was found liable in two civil suits totaling nearly $90 million in judgments.
• Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder: Trump in November ordered DOJ to investigate prominent Democrats associated with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, calling out Hoffman by name. Bondi tapped the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York to lead the investigation. None of Epstein’s victims have made any public allegation of wrongdoing against Hoffman.
• Eric Swalwell, California Representative: Said in a lawsuit filed in November that he was the target of a criminal referral issued by Pulte in October over alleged mortgage fraud. Swalwell denied wrongdoing and dropped the case in March during his gubernatorial campaign, which he later suspended.
• Miles Taylor and Christopher Krebs, former Trump administration officials: Trump signed an executive order in April ordering investigations into both. Taylor authored an anonymous New York Times op-ed in 2019 saying senior officials in Trump’s administration were working to frustrate his agenda. Krebs was fired by Trump after he contradicted Trump’s false claims about election fraud following the 2020 election.
• Security clearances revoked: Trump revoked security clearances for at least 51 former officials, including Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Alexander Vindman, former CIA and intelligence directors, attorneys at multiple law firms, 37 former intelligence leaders associated with an assessment of Russia’s attempt to influence the 2016 election, and additional former intelligence officials associated with the Hunter Biden laptop probe.
• Secret Service protection revoked: Trump revoked protection for Kamala Harris, former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

What This Means for You

You elected a President. What he does with the Justice Department — who he directs it to investigate, who he directs it to indict, and how he uses federal law enforcement as a tool — is a direct exercise of the power you gave him.

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The administration says these actions are “driven by law and not by politics.” Federal judges have already ruled otherwise in multiple cases — throwing out subpoenas and indictments on the grounds that they were retaliatory, politically motivated, or based on invalid appointments of prosecutors with no experience. A grand jury — the panel that almost always indicts when prosecutors ask — declined to indict six members of Congress.

This is the record. When you vote in 2026 and 2028 — for President, for Congress, for any office with oversight over federal law enforcement — you’re voting on whether this is how the Justice Department should be run.

What to Watch

The pattern here isn’t subtle. The targets are Trump’s political opponents. The investigations followed public demands from Trump. Career prosecutors were removed or overruled when they expressed doubts. Judges have called it harassment and retaliation in writing.

Vice President JD Vance says it’s “driven by law and not by politics.” That’s the claim. The material question — the one a voter actually needs an answer to — is whether the conduct matches the claim.

Here’s what to watch: Are the cases that survive judicial review the ones where the material evidence was strong from the start (Bolton’s case, investigated by career prosecutors before Trump took office), or are they the ones where Trump publicly demanded action first and the investigation followed? When a judge throws out a case or a grand jury declines to indict, does the administration accept that as the system working, or does it shop for a new prosecutor or a new theory?

You don’t need to guess at the answer — the record above already shows it. What you need to decide is whether that’s the standard you’ll accept when you vote.