Trump's Trials - President Trump pressures attorney general to investigate his political rivals

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

In a social media post Saturday, President Trump pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate his political rivals, fueling concerns about the administration weaponizing the Justice Department.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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Listen to the Wildcard podcast only from NPR. I'm Leila Faldin. And I'm Michelle Martin. Over the weekend, President Trump had a message for Attorney General Pam Bondi. In a post on social media, Trump pressured Bondi to investigate his perceived political rivals. NPR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is following this, and he's with us now from our studios. Good morning, Ryan. So before we get into what this means, could you just bring us up to speed on what actually happened?

And so what did the president say? 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 in New York State Attorney General Letitia James. And Trump said they are all guilty. He 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. 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 this post that all of that was baseless and that, quote, justice must be served now. So this post came right after other consequential news side 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? That's right. This is Eric 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, Seabert had been overseen 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 Seabert gone. And on social media, Trump said Seabert 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. And is somebody replacing him in that office? Do we know who that is?

Yes, Trump named Lindsay Halligan as the replacement. She is someone with no prosecutorial experience, but Halligan has been working as an aid 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. So what do these developments over the weekend say about the Justice Department in this second Trump administration? 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 in the law. So these developments over the weekend, yet again, are fueling already significant concerns about this administration in the weaponization of the Justice Department.

That is NPR Justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thank you. Thank you. Before we wrap up a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org.

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