U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs for a state visit to Britain, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., September 16, 2025. REUTERS Kevin Lamarque
New York Times Justice Department and F.B.I. reporter Devlin Barrett says it takes more than a vengeance-driven president to prosecute his personal grievances against people he thinks have crossed him. It also takes enablers with law degrees who are willing to soak those degrees to pursue Trump’s agenda.
Barrett is ready to name-check the worst of them.
“At least eight current U.S. attorneys have played prominent roles in pushing Mr. Trump’s grievances, often citing thin evidence that has subsequently led many of their cases to collapse,’ reports Barrett. “Three of those are running their offices without Senate confirmation.”
Minnesota AG Daniel Rosen is first up on Barrett’s hit list, being a man who has “aggressively pursued cases” against people in Minneapolis who protested the administration’s immigration policies and helped oversee investigations into Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat whom Trump has vowed to deport.
Rosen, said Barrett, is a commercial litigator who had never been a prosecutor, but who jumped to Trump’s marching orders when the president outright told him to “prosecute Ilhan Omar,” according to people familiar with the exchange. Federal agents, as part of an investigation overseen by Rosen’s office, conducted a recent search at Omar’s home in Washington.
John A. Sarcone III is grievance agent No. 2, according to Barrett, for leading “efforts to investigate New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, on the theory that she violated the civil rights of Mr. Trump.”
A federal judge blocked Sarcone in January from overseeing the investigation since he isn’t lawfully serving as acting U.S. attorney, but Barrett says that hasn’t stopped him from sending federal prosecutors to try to wring evidence against James from her hairdresser.
Down in North Carolina, meanwhile, Dan Bishop — again, who has never been a prosecutor — has been tasked to pursue election integrity cases across the country as part of Trump’s hunt for “evidence of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election.” Barrett says he’s seized hundreds of boxes of ballots in Georgia to buttress Trump’s debunked claim of election fraud there.
In Los Angelas, Barrett says Bill Essayli “has pushed to charge cases against anti-Trump protesters, many of which fell apart in court.”
When Trump said “they are trying to steal that election” in California primary, Barrett said Essayli dutifully followed Trump’s orders and began a search, despite never being confirmed for his role. And according to people familiar with the matter, Essayli insisted on charging a man who had provided face shields to anti-ICE protesters, despite objections from some members of his staff, said Barrett. Essayli’s charges got thrown from court.
And then there’s Jason A. Reding Quiñones in Miami, who has overseen “a centerpiece of Mr. Trump’s retribution campaign,” according to Barrett, a “grand conspiracy” by officials in the Biden and Obama administrations to pursue Trump. While Trump’s crusade has brought few indictments, Barrett said the crusade itself has “end[ed] the prosecutorial careers of many of the lawyers assigned to it.”
“The first two U.S. attorneys were forced out, having displeased senior Trump administration officials by concluding criminal charges were not warranted,” said Barrett.
District of Columbia AG Jeanine Pirro has pursued her own indictments of the president’s critics and “others invoking his ire, even when some of her prosecutors say the evidence does not support charges,” said Barrett.
Her list of failures are racking up, he added, including the indictment of David Hearn, a former Olympic athlete, for felony destruction of the Reflecting Pool.
“In dropping the case, Ms. Pirro’s office claimed that Department of Interior officials withheld key details that would have changed prosecutors’ view of the evidence,” said Barrett. “However, she and her investigators knew even before they went into the grand jury that there was at least one significant evidentiary flaw in their case and barreled ahead anyway, according to court filings by Mr. Hearn’s lawyers.”
And a federal judge also trampled her efforts to subpoena former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell, saying Ms. Pirro’s office had offered “no evidence whatsoever” that he had “committed any crime other than displeasing the president.”
North Carolina’s W. Ellis Boyle is another Trump agent who brought criminal charges against former F.B.I. director James Comey — for posting a photo of seashells.
“Of all the retribution-tinged indictments and investigations that have marked the second Trump term, none has more alarmed or angered longtime Justice Department officials than the one over the seashells photo,” said Barrett. “Senior Trump administration officials tried and failed in mid-2025 to find a prosecutor willing to charge Mr. Comey with threatening the president” with beach photos.
Finally, there’s Chicago AG Andrew Boutros, who Barrett says has managed to flub two dozen of more than 30 criminal cases filed against people for crimes like assaulting a federal agent or resisting a federal agent during the operation.
“I thought it was a crock,” one grand juror told prosecutors. “And I still think it is.”
And even when Boutros nabbed an indictment, a federal judge found the office had mishandled the case and dismissed the charges.
Boutros has yet to be confirmed as AG by the Senate.