Maddow: Trump’s 'Marquee Revenge' Prosecutions Are Cratering After Judge’s Rebuke

Rachel Maddow Says High-Profile Trump-Linked Prosecutions Are Unraveling

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow opened her program by describing what she called the "apparent collapse" of several high-profile prosecutions brought by Trump appointees, calling out what she described as inexperienced, politically driven lawyering by the Justice Department team handling the cases.

“What I was actually warning about this time last week was the collapse that has now apparently started of Trump’s marquee, headline revenge prosecutions of his supposed political enemies,” Maddow said.

Maddow highlighted recent reporting and a blistering federal magistrate judge’s findings in the criminal matter involving former FBI Director James Comey. The judge criticized handling of evidence and grand-jury procedures, saying the prosecution may have committed misconduct. Among the alleged problems were what the judge described as “rummaging through evidence,” failing to obtain proper search warrants, and putting an FBI agent before the grand jury in a “highly irregular” manner.

Most sharply, the judge concluded that prosecutor Lindsey Halligan made “fundamental and highly prejudicial misstatements of the law to the grand jury,” describing a “disturbing pattern of profound missteps.” The court said the government’s actions, whether purposeful, reckless, or negligent, raised genuine issues of misconduct.

That ruling arrived the same day New York Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James was scheduled to file a motion to dismiss the prosecution against her. James’s filing alleges the indictment is “the product of months of illegal and unethical behavior by government officials,” accusing them of misusing a federal agency, disregarding exculpatory evidence, removing ethics officials and career prosecutors, and attempting to install an unqualified U.S. attorney whose chief qualification was undying loyalty.

Maddow also cited reporting in the Wall Street Journal about Bill Pulte, the Trump appointee at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which reported that Pulte had removed oversight and ethics staff who were probing whether he improperly accessed information in connection with the James matter.

Summing up, Maddow said these developments look like predictable fallout from placing politically motivated and inexperienced lawyers in charge of politically sensitive prosecutions. She called the team “shambolic” and accused it of “D-list lawyering,” arguing that when the government pursues politicized actions beyond its authority, those moves are routinely challenged — and often fail in court.

Context: Maddow read from contemporary press coverage — including reports in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal — and from court filings and motions related to the Comey and James matters. Her commentary framed the judge’s findings, James’s dismissal motion, and the WSJ reporting as interconnected signals of legal and ethical problems surrounding these prosecutions.