Federal prosecutors won't comply with Trump retribution campaign, MSNBC reporting reveals

Trump's Retribution Campaign Faces Internal Resistance [00:00]

• MSNBC is reporting that Trump's handpicked US Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindseay Halligan, could not find any career prosecutors in her own office willing to pursue charges against former FBI Director James Comey.
• Halligan is taking the extremely rare step of recruiting prosecutors from outside her office to take Comey to trial, according to two people familiar with the selections.
• Halligan, a Trump loyalist appointed last month, was the sole signatory on the Comey indictment.
• Her predecessor resigned after resisting bringing charges against Comey and another perceived political enemy, New York AG Leticia James.
• Sources indicate that another top prosecutor from the same office, Elizabeth Jussi, is rejecting pressure from Donald Trump and refusing to bring charges against James.
• Jussi told co-workers she sees no probable cause to believe the New York AG engaged in mortgage fraud.
• Jussi plans to present her conclusions to Lindseay Halligan in the coming weeks and is bracing to be fired.

The news about Halligan is not that surprising that she couldn't find a career prosecutor to go in with her. But it is a real indictment of the case against um Comey that she couldn't get a single career prosecutor in the office to go.

It was, I think, sort of widely suspected to those of us sort of around in the office because she signed it by herself. There was she she presented it by herself. You would not do that. Um, if you could have found someone else at least to come in with you. Um, but it does reflect a really damning assessment of the indictment and the case against Comey from the professional prosecutors in the office.

External Legal Support and Broader Implications [02:03]

• Halligan will likely find someone from outside the office to help take the case to trial.
• There are conservative and Republican lawyers throughout the DOJ and US attorney's offices across the country, including in deep red states.
• John Durham managed to staff a team of prosecutors for a "ridiculous waste of time and money" that resulted in two acquittals, including a false statements case in this jurisdiction.
• This situation is seen as a drip-drip story about another prosecutor who refuses to bend to Trump's will or is fired for it.
• The question is how this plays in various orbits and whether it lands as significantly as other stories, though it is a critically important part of the overarching story.

As the lawyers go so at this stage goes the country, right?

Right-Wing Media's Perspective and Lost Confidence [03:46]

• For the right-wing media audience, John Durham was heralded for two years as the one who would put people like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and James Comey in jail.
• They heard relentlessly on talk radio and Fox News that his special prosecutor investigation would expose everything.
• At the end of the day, nothing happened, especially to the people they cared most about, leading to lost confidence and a reluctance to get excited and lose again.
• They still desire spite and revenge against these figures, but there is nothing new for them in these developments.
• Prominent voices like Fox or Sean Hannity are not hyping this; the main drivers are outlets like Gateway Pundit and a Twitter account called Pepe Lives Matter, indicating its low placement in the ecosystem.
• While they might get excited about the indictment of Comey due to a small blip of schadenfreude, they are not following these developments as closely as others.
• When efforts to prosecute figures like the New York Attorney General yield no results, it makes them feel like they are being strung along.
• In the context of the Epstein case, people question why these powers aren't used to address that issue.
• Every time an effort is made to use the justice system for revenge, the response is, "But what about this? Can you not use the same powers to get us this thing?"
• This is not playing out as intended and is not creating the desired excitement, though it may be making Trump happy.

This is the same old con.

Prosecutors as Guardians of the Future [05:38]

• It is worth underscoring that any prosecutor being unable to find another prosecutor to join them is significant.
• These prosecutors appear to be the only people in powerful positions who do not think Trump will be president forever, acting like he is the "lame duck" he is.
• They are looking down the road and saying, "Yeah, this is going to pass, and there's, you know, they're going to follow the law because that's going to ultimately be in their best interest."
• This is an important lesson for everyone.

They're looking down the road too and saying, "Yeah, this is going to pass and there's, you know, they're going to follow the law because that's going to ultimately be in their best interest."

Former DOJ Officials Sound Alarm on Institutional Assault [06:09]

• Nearly 300 former Department of Justice officials have signed an open letter sounding the alarm about the administration's degradation of the DOJ's work and its assault on public service.
• The former officials are making sweeping and serious accusations against the sitting president, comparing the situation to Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.
• While Watergate touched the Justice Department, the current administration is alleged to have mounted a broader and more sustained assault on its independence, policies, and personnel.
• The independence and prudence of institutions are important, but defending "progress" is what is most important to people.
• What Trump is doing is not just about defending the FBI or DOJ, but about whether hard-won progress can survive when the law is weaponized.
• Actions against figures like Tish James or James Comey are not just about them; James herself stated she is more concerned about what he is doing to the American people.
• Trump is targeting James, a Black woman, and individuals who have held him accountable.
• The core issue is punishing progress, and progress is what is at stake.

The independence of the institutions, but baby, it looks like it's already gone.

Understanding Public Perception: Outcomes Over Independence [08:04]

• The independence of the DOJ as a totem has likely been overrated by people in the media for a long time.
• The notion that the Justice Department would be fully independent from the president, whose appointed Attorney General is not elected, is intuitively not accessible to most people.
• People understand outcomes and how law enforcement affects them and their communities, especially when it can be deployed unfairly.
• Even for someone like Comey, who has been heavily criticized, a case that is transparently vindictive and political can backfire.
• Such vindictive actions can elevate the target, like Comey, to the status of a political martyr.
• Comey is well-equipped to handle such situations and is not someone who can be easily manipulated.
• The "perw walk" idea being discussed is considered stupid and a waste of time and money.
• The same applies to Tish James and other prominent political and media figures who know how to carry themselves.

Um, for someone like Comey, uh a case that is so very transparently vindictive in nature, political in nature, it can have a sort of a back um um it sort of shoot backwards at you, sort of backfire a little bit because it can elevate him as sort of a political martyr.