The criminal indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, which came just days after President Donald Trump replaced a longtime prosecutor who decided against seeking charges with a trusted aide, has raised concerns of Justice Department politicization to a fevered pitch.

“It’s what we see in authoritarian regimes, and this is what the Trump administration has done almost since Day 1, using the power of criminal prosecution either to punish people who are disfavored or to reward people who are favored,” New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, a Democrat, told USA TODAY.

A federal grand jury approved charges Sept. 25 that accused Comey of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding on Sept. 30, 2020. He allegedly testified at a congressional hearing that he hadn’t authorized someone at the FBI to anonymously leak information about an investigation to the media. In 2017, Trump fired Comey, who was in charge of an investigation into contacts between the Russian government and the 2016 Trump campaign.

Just five days before the indictment, with a five-year deadline for bringing charges approaching, Trump posted on social media that Comey was “guilty as hell” and delay was not an option.

That post, Trump’s last-minute installation of an aide with no prosecutorial experience, Lindsey Halligan, who quickly sought charges against Comey, and his history of threatening political opponents with prosecution have fueled fears that the Justice Department’s independence from a vengeful White House is hastily eroding.

“This is extremely dangerous,” former George W. Bush White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter told USA TODAY. “We shouldn’t have political prosecutions. It’s just not the way we do things in a democracy.”

Comey vowed in a video statement to defend his innocence.

“My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system,” he said in a video posted on Instagram. “I’m innocent, so let’s have a trial and keep the faith my family and I have known for years.”

Trump administration alleges previous administration did the same

Trump was criminally prosecuted by the Justice Department under President Joe Biden for allegedly conspiring to steal the 2020 election and for allegedly mishandling classified documents. Those cases were brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to ensure greater-than-normal investigative independence. Both cases were dropped after Trump won the 2024 election.

The president celebrated Comey’s indictment on social media as “JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media that it reflects her department’s “commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people.”

The Justice Department defended itself against accusations of politicization in a statement to USA TODAY.

“Unlike the previous four years of weaponization, this Department of Justice is focused on prosecuting violent crime, securing our borders, seizing deadly fentanyl off the streets, and making America safe again,” department spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said.

The White House said the Trump administration is delivering truth to the public and restoring integrity to the justice system in a statement to USA TODAY.

“It is the ultimate hypocrisy to accuse President Trump of what Joe Biden actively did throughout his presidency: engaging in lawfare against his political opponents. The indictment against Comey, by a grand jury, speaks for itself, and the Trump Administration looks forward to fair proceedings in the courts,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said.

DOJ targeting Trump foes

The indictment against Comey isn’t clear about what statement to Congress landed Comey in hot water. A federal grand jury decides whether to indict after what is typically a one-sided process in which the prosecution can present witnesses and evidence. Federal grand juries almost always vote to indict. This grand jury voted to indict Comey on two of three proposed charges.

The Comey indictment follows a series of statements from Trump or actions by his political appointees that targeted his critics and those who have investigated him.

In August, the FBI raided the home and office of John Bolton, who was a national security adviser in Trump’s first presidential administration but has since said Trump is unfit for office. The raids follow Trump’s move on his first day back in office in January to pull Bolton’s Secret Service protection, despite the Justice Department filing charges in 2022 alleging an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official was seeking a hit man to execute Bolton.

Trump’s Justice Department also opened an investigation into whether New York Attorney General Letitia James committed mortgage fraud. The same longtime prosecutor who decided charges weren’t justified in Comey’s case, Erik Siebert, also reportedly concluded he didn’t have enough evidence to prosecute James. The Justice Department declined to comment on whether it will now seek charges against James, too.

Jack Smith, the special prosecutor who led the federal criminal cases against Trump, has also been targeted. Trump’s appointee to head the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, Jamieson Greer, has led an investigation into Smith’s conduct in the Trump cases. Lawyers for Smith said in August that the inquiry is “partisan” and should be dropped.

Fani Willis, the Atlanta-area district attorney who led a prosecution against Trump before she was removed due to her romantic relationship and travel with another prosecutor, may also be under investigation, according to the New York Times. It said it had reviewed a federal grand jury subpoena seeking records on Willis’ travel history.

The Justice Department has also launched a mortgage fraud probe into California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, who participated in a congressional investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters. In a Sept. 20 social media post addressed to Bondi, Trump said Schiff, in addition to Letitia James and James Comey, is guilty of an unspecified crime.

In her nomination hearing, as multiple Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats raised concerns about Trump attempting to bend the DOJ to his will, Bondi testified “there will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice” and “politics will not play a part” in DOJ investigations and cases under her leadership.

Trump has stocked the Justice Department with a handful of his former lawyers. Bondi defended him as president in his first impeachment trial. Halligan represented him in litigation over the investigation into his handling of classified documents. He chose three of his personal criminal defense lawyers, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and Alina Habba, for high-profile Justice Department jobs this year, although Bove and Habba’s roles have shifted.

Trump says justice was weaponized against him

Trump and some of his allies say using the Justice Department to target his foes is justified – or at least given important context – by the prosecutions Trump faced ahead of his 2024 election.

In his Sept. 20 social media post calling for James, Comey and Schiff to be prosecuted, he said, “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!).” Trump was actually indicted four times, and never by any of those three individuals. Schiff held leadership roles in both of the impeachments of Trump, and James brought a major civil lawsuit against him.

Trump may have “a sliver of a point,” Painter said, when it comes to analyzing the cases against him and what others faced. To Painter, Biden should also have been held accountable for mishandling classified documents, although he believes the allegations against Biden were less egregious than those against Trump. However, Painter emphasized that he doesn’t believe either of the federal cases Trump faced were political prosecutions.

“None of that justifies anything that’s happening now,” Painter said.

Platkin, the New Jersey attorney general, said the cases against Trump were very different from what is happening now because Biden never publicly called for Trump to be prosecuted and never fired anyone for refusing to do so. Smith, a career prosecutor, was appointed to lead the investigation into Trump under Justice Department regulations designed to protect against political interference.

“The idea that we’re talking about two sides of the same coin and that the Trump administration is just righting the wrong or doing the same thing that was done in the Biden administration is absurd,” Platkin said.

“They’re using that as pretext to take incredibly inappropriate actions against political opponents, using the full power of the United States justice system,” he added.

Bending justice to favor friends?

In addition to targeting perceived enemies of the president, the Justice Department under Trump has taken steps to help those who might help Trump’s administration.

One of the most glaring examples came in the first half of the year, when the department dropped its bribery case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Bove, a former personal lawyer to Trump who was working as a top DOJ official, said in a memo that the case distracted Adams from focusing on immigration and crime – two major priorities for the Trump administration. Several department prosecutors resigned in protest.

The Justice Department also dropped an investigation into Trump border czar Tom Homan that was looking into various potential crimes, including bribery, according to reports from MSNBC and The New York Times, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Investigators allegedly caught Homan accepting $50,000 in cash after suggesting he could help undercover agents posing as business executive win government contracts in a second Trump term.

Both outlets reported officials debated internally whether charges would be appropriate given Homan wasn’t a government employee when he allegedly took the cash. In statements following the reports, Trump administration officials said the evidence didn’t support charges and alleged the investigation was political.

Homan and Adams both maintain their innocence.

Giving Homan or Adams breaks for political or personal reasons would be “violations of the rule of law,” Barbara McQuade, who served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan during the Obama administration, told USA TODAY.

“All of us are equal before the law, and if we break the law, we should expect to be treated equally,” McQuade said.

Eroding boundaries between DOJ and White House?

One of the Justice Department’s major policies for avoiding political interference prohibits prosecutors from being influenced in their decision to seek charges by a defendant’s “political association, activities, or beliefs.” Critics of the Trump administration’s moves say Comey’s indictment calls into question whether the department is abiding by that policy within its own Justice Manual.

Trump’s Justice Department has also formally moved to weaken communication boundaries between itself and the White House, according to a February report by the Washington Post, which reviewed a new memo specifying that Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and their counsel are allowed to initiate conversations with the DOJ about specific criminal and civil cases and investigations.

Trump’s Sept. 20 post alone, in which he addressed Bondi directly and called for prosecutors to pursue charges against James, Schiff and Comey, showed it’s not just a theoretical policy. He was weighing in directly on a charging decision.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, told USA TODAY the president should never be involved in using the U.S. Department of Justice or the FBI for a political prosecution.

“It harkens back to McCarthyism and the weaponization of attacks and accusations around Communism, and the invocation of the Red Scare, to silence people and harm people and go after political opponents,” Bonta added.

Contributing: Francesca Chambers – USA TODAY.