Josh Dawsey, Sadie Gurman and Aruna Viswanatha at WSJ:
In his second term, President Trump has taken control of the Justice Department in ways he could have only dreamed of during his first.
Then, he publicly railed against senior department officials but largely heeded the counsel of aides who urged him to trust the legal process. This term, all it took was one errant post to get what he wanted.
On Sept. 20, Trump meant to send a private message to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and his other favored targets, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Trump wrote.
Trump believed he had sent Bondi the message directly, addressing it to “Pam,” and was surprised to learn it was public, the officials said. Bondi grew upset and called White House aides and Trump, who then agreed to send a second post praising Bondi as doing a “GREAT job.”
The misfire provided a window into how, through command and chaos, Trump has executed a wholesale transformation of the Justice Department.
A prosecutor handpicked by President Trump secured an indictment of New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, on bank fraud and false statement charges in the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday after the president publicly demanded she be charged.
The five-page indictment accused Ms. James of falsely claiming in loan documents that she would use a home she purchased in Norfolk, Va., as a secondary residence, and using it instead as a rental investment property, allowing her to receive favorable terms that would save her close to $19,000.
The charges, coming two weeks after the Trump-directed indictment of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, deepened the president’s intervention in the justice system, casting away longstanding democratic norms as he seeks retribution on his political enemies.
