An explainer on the Trump administration indictments

In the Oval Office last week, President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel held a news conference on the summer’s increased law enforcement operations. But the president also said that justice is coming for his political opponents.

“You know, we’re talking about violent crime. What about the crime against a political opponent? That’s what we have to talk about, too,” he told reporters. “I think it was the worst weaponization of a political opponent in the history of this country, let alone this world.”

The president was referring to former special counsel Jack Smith, who led two cases charging Trump with mishandling classified documents and with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. Both cases were dropped after Trump won reelection in 2024.

Now that Trump is back in control of the Justice Department, the tables are turning on a variety of his political opponents who’ve been handed their own indictments in recent months, including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and former national security adviser John Bolton. Trump also suggested the Justice Department should investigate other political opponents of his, such as former DOJ official Andrew Weissmann and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

“I hope they’re looking at Shifty Schiff. I hope they’re looking at all these people,” Trump said. “And I’m allowed to find out. I’m in theory the chief law enforcement officer. … But I hope they’re looking at political crime because there’s never been so much political crime against a political opponent as what I had to go through.”

Here’s an overview of where the Trump administration indictments against James, Comey, and Bolton currently stand:

New York Attorney General Letitia James: On Oct. 9, interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan brought a case against James, accusing her of bank fraud. Halligan’s predecessor, former interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert had said he might not have enough evidence to charge James. Siebert was still pending Senate confirmation, but Trump said he wanted to fire him because two Democratic senators supported Siebert’s nomination. Later that day, Siebert resigned.

According to the indictment, James bought a three-bedroom home in Norfolk, Va., in August 2020, which she financed with a mortgage. Her loan specifically required the property to be used as a secondary residence, the indictment says, meaning she was not allowed to rent it out or use it as a timeshare. Nevertheless, according to prosecutors, James rented the property to a family of three despite listing it as her own residence. This allowed her to maintain a lower interest rate of 3% rather than 3.8%. The government claims James benefited to the tune of $18,933.

According to The New York Times, James’ great-niece lived in the home and did not pay rent, which she testified to a different grand jury. She added that James stays at the house several times each year. Halligan later told a Lawfare reporter that the Times reporting was wrong and biased, though she said she could not comment on grand jury matters.

James has called the government’s charges baseless. “The president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost,” she said in a statement. James brought a business fraud case against Trump in 2024, after campaigning in 2018 on a promise to prosecute him. At the time, she also called him an “illegitimate president.” A court in the 2024 case found Trump had misrepresented his wealth to banks and insurers. It held him and his co-defendants liable for $450 million in penalties and barred him for three years from serving as the executive of the Trump Organization or any New York company. A New York appeals court tossed out the fines this August but upheld the fraud charge.

The case against James is also marked by internal conflicts in the Eastern District of Virginia. Two federal prosecutors who recommended against charging her were fired last week, according to CBS News. The LinkedIn profile for one of the assistant U.S. attorneys, Kristin Bird, shows that she now works in the private sector after working for the Eastern District since 2019. Halligan’s predecessor, Erik Seibert, had also not filed charges against James after five months of investigation.

While most federal indictments are signed by the assistant U.S. attorneys and rank-and-file prosecutors building the case, Halligan was the only attorney who signed the James indictment. If convicted, James could be sentenced to a maximum of 30 years in prison per count and up to $1 million fine per count. She is due for an initial court appearance on Friday.

Former FBI Director James Comey: On Sept. 25, Halligan charged Comey with two federal counts: one of making a false statement to Congress and another of obstructing a congressional proceeding.

The indictment centers on testimony that Comey gave before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020 in which he discussed an earlier testimony to the same committee. Comey had testified in 2017 that he had not authorized anyone at the FBI to leak information to the press about its investigation into Russian links to the Trump 2016 campaign. (The report ultimately determined there was no collusion between Russia and the campaign, though it said Russia tried to influence the elections.) Later, at the 2020 hearing, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked if Comey had been lying. Comey answered, “I stand by the testimony.”

Comey has asked the Virginia-based U.S. District Court to dismiss the charges against him on the basis of selective and vindictive prosecution. The charges were filed a week after Trump posted a message to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Truth Social directing her to fast-track cases against several political opponents, starting with Comey.

U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, a Biden appointee, was randomly assigned to handle the case. As in the Letitia James case, only Halligan signed the Comey indictment. She also argued the case before a grand jury herself, which is not typical procedure. A jury trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 5.

Former national security adviser John Bolton: Prosecutors on Oct. 16 charged Bolton with 18 counts related to mishandling classified information. The FBI in August had raided Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Md., and his office in Washington, D.C. Agents reported that they seized several documents labeled secret, confidential, and classified, according to court records. Bolton has been under investigation for potentially mishandling classified information and using it in a book he published after leaving his post in the first Trump administration, where he served as a top adviser to Trump in 2018 and 2019. He differed with the president regarding North Korea and Iran policy. The two men have offered conflicting statements on whether Bolton voluntarily resigned or whether Trump asked him to leave.

According to the indictment, Bolton created a group chat with two relatives who did not hold security clearances. He wrote in a message that the chat would be used “for the diary.” For the next year, he allegedly relayed regular updates and descriptions of his days, his meetings, ongoing negotiations with other countries, and details about classified matters. Even after leaving the Trump administration, Bolton also retained some classified documents in his home, prosecutors say. In 2020, he published a memoir, The Room Where It Happened, about his time in the administration. He characterized Trump as uninformed and irrational when it came to foreign policy matters. Before publication, Bolton sent a copy of the book to the National Security Council, which flagged it for containing classified information that needed to be removed. Bolton complied, but the disclosure kicked off an internal investigation. In 2021, the U.S. government and Bolton agreed to a civil settlement that required him to hand over any remaining documents he had.

Bolton has pleaded not guilty to the latest charges. The indictment alleges that after the settlement, in July 2021, a hacker with Iranian connections gained access to one of Bolton’s personal email accounts. Bolton did not notify the FBI of the breach, prosecutors say, even after the hacker emailed a threat later that month to cause “the biggest scandal since Hillary [Clinton’s] emails were leaked.” The day after receiving the threat, a representative for Bolton told the FBI that Bolton would delete all the contents of that same email account.

Unlike the Comey and James indictments, Bolton’s indictment lists six federal attorneys, who recommended the charges. A trial date has not yet been set.