Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump has had a fair bit of success indicting his political enemies. He wanted James Comey indicted and—bam!—Comey was indicted. He wanted Letitia James indicted and—bam!—James was indicted. He wanted John Bolton indicted and—bam!—Bolton was indicted.
It would appear that there may be limits here, however. Obviously, Trump hasn't come close to indicting some of his first-term bugaboos, like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He's not having much luck with Jack Smith, either. And the President is getting some real pushback on someone he would dearly love to see perp walked into court: Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Schiff is in Trump's doghouse for either two or three reasons. The first is that Schiff led the prosecution in the first Trump impeachment and has been, in general, a loud (and pretty effective) critic of the administration. For an example, see this 30-second clip from a few years ago:
Schiff's second crime, meanwhile, is that he is from California. Trump hates Californians, except for the ones who give him lots of money (e.g., Peter Thiel). Third, and this is the maybe, but not too much of a maybe, is that Schiff is Jewish. It seems to us that Trump is particularly enraged by Jews who don't see the light and line up behind him. The President did say, for example, "Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion." He also said that, "I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty."
Anyhow, in contrast to Smith, the Department of Justice has cooked up something to charge Schiff with, namely mortgage fraud. He is ostensibly "guilty" of the exact same thing that James is, namely representing a second residence as his primary residence in order to gain more favorable interest rates. However, there are two big differences between the James case and the Schiff case. One of those is that James lives and works in New York City, and does not necessarily need a second home. Schiff lives in California and works in Washington, DC, so he does. In those circumstances, banks are willing to accept that a person has two primary residences.
The even bigger difference between James and Schiff is that her second house is in Eastern Virginia, while his second house is in Maryland. That means that James is within the jurisdiction of pseudo-U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, who is an agent of the Trump Organization, and will do whatever she is told. Schiff, on the other hand, is within the jurisdiction of actual-U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes, who is not, and will not.
Hayes and her two main deputies are well aware that the would-be Schiff prosecution is being driven primarily by Trump lackey Ed Martin, the fellow who was supposed to be U.S. Attorney for Washington, DC, but was way too MAGA for even the Republican-controlled Senate. So, there is a war going on right now, with Martin on one side and Hayes and her two main deputies on the other. And Martin's problem is that he cannot legally sign an indictment in Maryland. Only Hayes (or her deputies) can.
In theory, Trump could try to fire Hayes (and possibly her lieutenants), but it's not quite that easy. He already had his bite at the Maryland apple, and whiffed with Phil Selden. Hayes is in her job because the judges of that district tossed Selden overboard and chose Hayes to replace him. So, the only legal way for Trump to replace Hayes is with someone confirmed by the Senate. The Senate doesn't have too many limits these days, but it's not generally been willing to appoint Trump henchmen as U.S. Attorneys. Trump could also say "law be damned" and try to seat his chosen stooge to replace Hayes. But then the administration would have another Alina Habba problem, where everything the "U.S. Attorney" did might be illegal and subject to reversal.
So, Schiff can probably rest pretty easy. On the other hand, it was Kelly Hayes who signed the indictment of John Bolton. As we wrote when the former NSA was indicted, he's the Trump enemy who may be in some real hot water here. The fact that Hayes is holding the line on Schiff is evidence she's probably just calling balls and strikes. That means that Bolton, in contrast to Schiff, probably should not be resting easy. (Z)