Trump Moves Closer to Prosecuting Political Rivals
Plus: Which newsmaker do Americans like most?
Attorney General Pam Bondi personally ordered a Justice Department prosecutor to initiate a grand jury investigation tied to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s allegations that officials from the Obama administration oversaw a “years-long coup against President Trump,” Fox News reported on Monday.
It is unclear who the prosecutor is, who exactly is being investigated, or what exactly they are being investigated for. As I wrote last week, the documents recently released by Gabbard to support her claims did not appear to show any evidence of criminality by Obama officials.
The documents mostly showed that intelligence officials did not believe during or after the 2016 campaign that Russia interference into the election included successfully manipulating voting machines to actually change votes. However, neither President Obama nor any of his appointees ever said otherwise, undermining Gabbard’s claims that the documents proved a “treasonous conspiracy” carried out by Trump’s predecessor.
The investigation is one of several being carried out by the Trump administration against its adversaries, including a probe recently opened into former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who prosecuted Trump during the Biden administration. Trump also ordered the Justice Department in April to investigate Chris Kreps and Miles Taylor, two appointees from his first administration who later crossed him.
Of those investigations, after Bondi’s Monday directive, the one into the former Obama officials is now the farthest along, at least as far as we know publicly. The prosecutor will now present any evidence the Justice Department has to a grand jury, which could then choose to indict one or more of the officials.
It is not clear whether the probe will reach that stage, but if it does, it will mark a major development: the highest-profile example of the Trump administration using the Justice Department to prosecute its political rivals.
More news to know
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fresh off of moving to fire the attorney general currently prosecuting him, has reportedly decided to expand military operations and seek to fully occupy the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu is set to discuss the plan with defense officials later today.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state troopers to “locate, arrest, and return” the Democratic legislators who have left Texas to block a vote on the new Republican redistricting plan. However, with the legislators hiding out in blue states that have pledged not to cooperate, there is likely very little the state troopers can do.
House Republicans are facing angry crowds as they return to their districts to sell the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz has locked up the votes needed to become the next Senate Democratic Whip.
Before I go…
Here’s one for the road: Gallup asked Americans for their opinions about 14 prominent newsmakers.
Of the group, only three were rated more favorably than unfavorably: Pope Leo XIV, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Bernie Sanders.
The least popular? Elon Musk, with Benjamin Netanyahu not far behind. Here’s the full list:
Pope Leo was the only figure above water with members of both parties, although his net favorability was twice as large among Democrats as Republicans.
Donald Trump and JD Vance were tied for the most popular figures among Republicans. (Notably, Vance’s net favorability was seven points higher than Trump’s among both Democrats and Independents, a key signal ahead of 2028.) The poll also showed Republicans much more fond of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. than of Marco Rubio, another potential 2028 contender.
Among Democrats, Sanders came out on top. Democrats rated both Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez more favorably than Joe Biden, though all three considerably outpolled Gavin Newsom.
Chris Krebs never “crossed” our current president. What he did was to tell the truth about the 2020 election result. To the administration it appears that truth-telling counts as betrayal. This is where we are in our Orwellion epoch, a time when truth equals treason in the eyes of our nation’s governance. We should all be looking over our shoulders.
The difference is that Trump is the enemy of the people.