You gotta move fast ...

Illustration: Maura Kearns/Axios

You gotta move fast as the economy's going to crap out (climate change, national debt, aging population, tariffs, AI driven job loss, etc., etc), ICE is out of control, backing genocide's not a good thing and the Ukraine disaster continues ever onward while the mid terms loom, promising to be a debacle for the repugs, if they actually happen, because people are beginning to get really angry about how the administration from hell continues to dismantle the once great nation known as America.

The indictment of former FBI Director James Comey has delivered President Trump and the MAGA movement their first real taste of legal retribution — and likely not their last.

Why it matters: To Democrats and the legal establishment, the charges against Comey for obstruction of justice and lying to Congress represent one of the most brazen collapses of prosecutorial independence in U.S. history.

To Trump's base, the indictment is vindication — a long-awaited strike against a "Deep State" villain they've obsessed over for nearly a decade.

Now, MAGA's biggest question is how much further Trump will go in enforcing the political "accountability" that has animated the movement for years.

The big picture: The indictment came just days after Trump publicly demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi charge his enemies, including Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

Trump declared the trio "guilty as hell," and linked the need to serve swift "justice" to the roles they played in the congressional investigations, criminal probes and civil lawsuits that have dogged his political career.

He took credit for firing the U.S. attorney who declined to bring charges against James and Comey — then installed personal attorney Lindsey Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience, to finish the job.

What they're saying: As the legal world recoiled in horror at Trump's breach of DOJ independence, MAGA erupted with glee and hunger for more.

Former President Obama and Hillary Clinton — plus liberal philanthropist George Soros — are viewed as the crown jewels of MAGA's retribution agenda.

Harris, as a former prosecutor, knows the drill and her take is spot on. It's not about politics any more,
 it's about dictatorship.

Vice President Kamala Harris stands at the White House during President Donald Trump's second inauguration on January 20, 2025. Nathan Howard/Reuters/File

“It’s frustrating, but more than that, it’s painful to see,” Harris said, speaking exclusively to CNN on Friday afternoon during a break in the Washington swing of her tour, when asked what she made of Trump’s term so far. “It’s painful to see. I mean what’s happening with Comey: Are you fucking kidding me? The United States Department of Justice?”

Before being elected to the Senate in 2016, the former vice president spent her professional life as a prosecutor, including her time as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, and issues of the law hit hard for her.

Harris warned during the campaign that Trump would go after people he considered his political enemies. The Justice Department bringing charges against Comey came after Trump publicly pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi and replaced the US attorney for the district where Comey was indicted.

“He said it; we knew he would do it,” Harris said. “But it is every day unrelenting.”

Asked whether she sees the indictment as the crossing of a Rubicon, or a boundary,
Harris said, “I don’t know. Define Rubicon.”

Lest we forget ...

President Richard Nixon's
Official Presidential Photograph, taken in 1971

 

Richard Nixon's enemies list refers to a compilation of major political opponents to Richard Nixon, the president of the United States from 1969 until his resignation in 1974, that was assembled by Charles Colson and written by George T. Bell[1] (assistant to Colson, special counsel to the White House), and sent in memorandum form to John Dean on September 9, 1971. The list was part of a campaign officially known as "Opponents List" and "Political Enemies Project".

John Dean's cover memo, dated August 16, 1971.