Trump wants Democrats investigated for promising to investigate his administration, but the Trump Justice Department has spent nearly two years going after a long list of his critics, from former FBI Director James Comey to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
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On Saturday, days after Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the midterms, Trump posted on Truth Social that Democrats were committing “extortion at the highest level” by threatening Attorney General Todd Blanche and others with impeachment and investigations. He ordered Blanche to “look into this criminal act, immediately!” and wrote that “the imprisonment should be against these EXTORTIONISTS.”
What set him off: Rep. Robert Garcia of California, who is expected to chair the House Oversight Committee, told Trump allies to “lawyer up,” and Reps. Hank Johnson and Deborah Ross floated impeaching Blanche. Garcia has said Democrats plan to dig into the Trump family’s business dealings, ICE and the Epstein investigation.
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On CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Blanche did not rule out investigating Democratic lawmakers. He argued Democrats had “threatened donors” and that talk of impeachment and going after private companies is “not oversight.”
A few definitions help here. Congressional oversight is Congress’s power to investigate how the executive branch uses its money and authority, including by issuing subpoenas, which are legal orders to hand over documents or testify. Impeachment is the process Congress uses to formally charge a federal official with serious misconduct. Extortion, under federal law, generally means using threats to get money or property from someone. Democrats announcing investigations are not asking anyone for money.
The irony is hard to miss. Below is a rundown of people Trump publicly attacked who were then investigated, raided, arrested or charged by his administration, what the government said it was doing, and where each case stands. The legal group Protect Democracy, which tracks these cases, counts 40 such actions since January 2025 and says most of them have fallen apart in court.
James Comey
Trump fired Comey as FBI director in 2017 and has attacked him ever since. In September 2025, Trump posted on Truth Social appearing to demand that then Attorney General Pam Bondi prosecute Comey, Letitia James and Adam Schiff, calling them “guilty as hell.” The top federal prosecutor in eastern Virginia, Erik Siebert, had just left after reportedly refusing to bring a case, and Trump said he fired him. Trump replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, a former White House aide and Trump lawyer with no prosecutorial experience, and within days she secured an indictment charging Comey with lying to Congress. In November 2025, a federal judge threw the case out, ruling Halligan was unlawfully appointed. The Justice Department appealed.
Then came case two. In April 2026, a grand jury in North Carolina indicted Comey on charges of threatening Trump’s life over an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to spell “8647.” In slang, “86” can mean to get rid of something, and 47 is a reference to Trump. FBI Director Kash Patel said Comey “disgracefully encouraged a threat” on Trump’s life. Comey deleted the post and has said he never meant it as a call for violence. A judge pushed his arraignment to January 2027 while his motions to dismiss are pending.
Case three surfaced in October 2026, when prosecutors charged Comey with leaking national defense information to a reporter back in 2016. They used a charging document called an information, which skips a grand jury entirely and is usually reserved for defendants planning to plead guilty. Comey’s lawyers say two different U.S. attorneys reviewed that allegation over the past decade and declined to charge it. That makes three cases in 13 months. The same day the new case was unsealed, a judge ruled the administration had unlawfully fired Comey’s daughter, former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey.
Letitia James
James won a major civil fraud case against Trump and his business in New York. In 2025, Bill Pulte, the Trump appointee who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency, accused her of mortgage fraud. Before any charges were filed, Ed Martin, head of the Justice Department’s “Weaponization Working Group,” sent her lawyer a letter saying he would take her resignation “as an act of good faith.” In October 2025, Halligan indicted James for bank fraud over a home she bought, after a career prosecutor reportedly concluded there was not enough evidence. The same judge tossed that case in November 2025 over Halligan’s appointment. Prosecutors tried again, and grand juries in both Norfolk and Alexandria declined to indict her. James has called the case politically motivated from the start.
Adam Schiff
The California senator, who led Trump’s first impeachment, also got a mortgage fraud referral from Pulte in 2025, and Trump included him in his “guilty as hell” post. Prosecutors reportedly found there was not enough evidence to charge him. No charges have been filed, and Schiff denies any wrongdoing.
Lisa Cook
Cook sits on the Federal Reserve Board, the central bank panel that sets interest rates and is designed to be independent from the White House. Pulte accused her of mortgage fraud in August 2025, Trump tried to fire her days later, and the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation. Cook denies wrongdoing, and her lawyers have pointed out that Trump himself listed two Florida properties as his primary residence in 1993, the same kind of filing he accused her of. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2026 that Trump could not fire her. In October, the White House ordered a “committee of inquiry” to decide whether there is cause to remove her.
Jerome Powell
Trump spent months attacking the former Fed chair for not cutting interest rates fast enough. In January 2026, Washington U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro opened a criminal investigation into Powell tied to the Fed’s headquarters renovation. Judge James Boasberg quashed the subpoenas, writing there was “abundant evidence” their main purpose was to pressure Powell to give in to Trump or resign. Pirro dropped the investigation in April 2026. Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said at the time that the independence and credibility of the Justice Department were now in question.
John Bolton
Trump’s former national security adviser became one of his loudest critics and wrote a book about his time in the White House. The FBI searched his home in August 2025, and he was indicted that October for mishandling classified information. In June 2026, Bolton pleaded guilty to one felony count of illegally keeping national security information, making his one of the few cases on this list to end in a conviction. Critics have pointed out that no one was charged after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials discussed military strike plans in a Signal group chat that accidentally included a journalist.
John Brennan and the “Grand Conspiracy” Probe
In July 2025, the FBI opened an investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan and Comey over their roles in the 2016 Russia investigation. It has since grown into what has been called a “grand conspiracy” probe run out of Miami, which subpoenaed Comey in March 2026. Brennan has accused the department of irregular activity before the grand jury. No charges have been filed. The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee concluded years ago that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election to help Trump.
Mark Kelly, Elissa Slotkin and the “Seditious Six”
In November 2025, Sen. Mark Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers who served in the military or intelligence community posted a video reminding troops they are not required to follow illegal orders. Trump wrote that they should be “ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL” and reposted a call to “Hang them.” The Pentagon opened a review of Kelly, a retired Navy captain, and Hegseth moved to censure him and review his retirement rank. A federal judge blocked that in February 2026, and the appeal is ongoing. Pirro’s office also investigated Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Reps. Jason Crow, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan. In February 2026, a grand jury refused to indict them, and the investigation was dropped. Trump singled out Slotkin again in Saturday’s post.
LaMonica McIver and Ras Baraka
In May 2025, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for trespassing outside the Delaney Hall ICE detention center. Body camera footage later caught an agent saying the arrest was happening “per the deputy attorney general,” a post Blanche held at the time. The charge was dropped within days, and a judge scolded prosecutors, saying an arrest of a public figure “is not a preliminary investigative tool.” Rep. LaMonica McIver, who was there doing what she says was congressional oversight, was charged with assaulting and impeding federal officers. Trump called her behavior “out of control.” In August 2026, an appeals court allowed most of the charges to move forward.
Cassidy Hutchinson
The former White House aide testified before the January 6 committee about Trump’s actions on the day of the Capitol attack, and Trump called her “a total phony.” After a criminal referral from Republican Reps. Barry Loudermilk and Jim Jordan, the Justice Department took her case to a grand jury. On October 27, 2026, the grand jury declined to indict her.
David Hearn, the Olympian
This one sounds made up. In June 2026, Trump’s renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool turned into a mess, and Trump blamed vandals, claiming someone cut a “300 ft slit” in it, “probably a box cutter.” Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn had stopped during a bike ride and touched the pool’s coating. On July 2, Pirro indicted him on a felony destruction of property charge that carried up to 10 years in prison. Trump attacked Hearn over his ActBlue donations and called his lawyer, Norm Eisen, a “Hack Lawyer.” Weeks later, the government admitted the damage came from a botched installation, and Pirro dropped the case. Trump said she “choked.” On October 1, a judge dismissed the case permanently, citing Trump’s pressure campaign on Pirro’s office. Hearn is now weighing legal action against the administration.
E. Jean Carroll and Reid Hoffman
Carroll won two civil verdicts against Trump totaling nearly $90 million, with one jury finding him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. In May 2026, the Justice Department reportedly opened an investigation into a group led by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, a major Democratic donor, over its help funding her lawsuits, with investigators looking at money laundering and obstruction. Trump had previously called Hoffman a donor “funding this Witch Hunt.” The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago denied reports that Carroll herself was under investigation. Outside groups helping pay for lawsuits is common and generally legal.
Ilhan Omar
Trump has said of the Minnesota congresswoman, “We ought to get her the hell out.” On October 12, 2026, just 22 days before Election Day, Homeland Security Investigations agents searched Omar’s Washington area home as part of a criminal investigation tied to her immigration history. Trump called her a “terrible person” but said he had nothing to do with the search. Justice Department guidelines warn against taking public steps in politically sensitive cases close to an election. No charges have been filed.
L. Louise Lucas
The 82 year old leader of the Virginia state Senate led the push to redraw Virginia’s congressional map to counter Trump backed Republican redistricting in other states. Two weeks after voters approved that plan, the FBI raided her district office and a cannabis business she partly owns. In October 2026, she was indicted along with family members on racketeering charges tied to marijuana sales and money laundering, and the case was unsealed 12 days before the election at a press conference with Blanche and Patel. Reports say Halligan pushed for the charges believing they would help Republicans in the midterms. Lucas has not been convicted of anything.
Tim Walz, Jacob Frey and Minnesota Leaders
After an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis in January 2026, Trump threatened Minnesota Democrats with a “DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION.” The Justice Department then subpoenaed Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Attorney General Keith Ellison, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in an investigation into whether they conspired to impede federal agents. In June 2026, a federal judge quashed the subpoenas, writing that using a criminal investigation to harass political opponents is blatantly unlawful and unethical.
Don Lemon and Georgia Fort
In January 2026, protesters disrupted a service at a St. Paul church over immigration enforcement. The Justice Department charged them, along with journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, who say they were there covering it, under the FACE Act, a law protecting access to clinics and places of worship. Defendants say it is the first time in the law’s 30 year history that anyone has been criminally charged under its place of worship provision. Trump has long called Lemon “the dumbest man on television.” A judge initially refused to sign off on Lemon’s arrest warrant, though a grand jury later indicted him. The case is ongoing.
Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor
In April 2025, Trump signed orders directing investigations into Krebs, the former cybersecurity chief who said the 2020 election was secure, and Taylor, the former Homeland Security official who anonymously wrote a warning about Trump during his first term. There is no public evidence that either committed a crime, and neither has been charged.
The FBI Officials Behind the Hunter Biden Warning
In October 2026, 11 days before the election, prosecutors charged former FBI officials Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides with lying to Congress about their roles in warning that Russia was amplifying claims about the Biden family. Trump called them “dirty cops, like Comey.” On November 2, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui dismissed the case, finding the government failed to show probable cause. He said it was the first time he had ever made that finding from the bench.
What the Administration Says
Trump and his officials reject the idea that any of this is retaliation. Trump has said he did not have to instruct Bondi or Patel to go after Comey and James because the two were “so dirty” that prosecutors acted on their own. He has long argued that he was the real victim of weaponization, pointing to the two federal cases special counsel Jack Smith brought against him, which were dropped after he won the 2024 election, and his New York conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. On CNN Sunday, Blanche said people are “allowed to be critical” of Trump and of him. White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said this week that if Democrats pursue “sham investigations,” they are choosing to work against the American people.
The record tells its own story. Grand juries have refused to indict. Judges have tossed cases, quashed subpoenas and called out political pressure in writing. Career prosecutors have resigned or been pushed out for refusing to bring cases.
Starting in January, Democrats will control both chambers of Congress, along with the subpoena power that comes with it. Whether Blanche acts on Trump’s order to investigate the lawmakers holding that power is the next thing to watch.
