The Comey–James Case Collapse Exposes Trump’s Government of Sycophants

In Trump's world, only lackeys need apply

Authoritarians like Donald Trump value loyalty over qualifications, competence, or integrity. That truth was starkly underlined in the recent dismissal of federal charges brought against two high-profile defendants: former FBI Director James Comey and former New York Attorney General Letitia James.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie didn’t rule on the merits of either case. Instead, she focused on the status of the prosecutor who brought them. Lindsey Halligan had been appointed as interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in violation of federal law — something Trump and his team undoubtedly knew, yet proceeded with anyway.

The relevant statute is straightforward: a president may install an interim U.S. attorney for 120 days. After that one window, it’s up to the courts to fill the vacancy. But, in typical strongman fashion, Trump ignored the limit. He made a second appointment, dispatching White House aide Halligan to Alexandria to oversee a sprawling office of 300 attorneys and staff.

Her qualifications? Halligan was an insurance lawyer until 2022, when she joined Trump’s personal legal team. When Trump took office this year, she was brought into the White House as a special assistant. Her biggest assignment was overseeing political meddling at the Smithsonian — ensuring its exhibits matched Trump’s fourth-grade-level view of American history.

Halligan had no experience in prosecution, criminal law, or management. And when she arrived in Virginia, she learned that the career prosecutors there had already concluded the evidence against Comey and James didn’t merit prosecution. (Comey was accused of lying to Congress; James of alleged mortgage-related fraud.)

But Halligan had her orders. Trump had campaigned on vengeance — promising retribution against anyone he believed had wronged him. Comey had led the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s 2016 interference. James had prosecuted Trump’s business empire, winning a penalty expected to reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

Halligan pushed forward. And while grand juries famously “indict a ham sandwich,” as the saying goes, those indictments ultimately meant nothing. Judge Currie ruled that Halligan had no legal authority to bring charges in the first place. Her appointment violated the statute, and so the cases collapsed.

The dismissals illuminate a broader truth: Trump’s White House has replaced competence with sycophancy at every level of government. The result is predictable chaos. Consider a few examples:

• FBI Director Kash Patel
Under fire for using government jets for personal travel — including a golf getaway to Scotland — Patel also assigned a specialized SWAT-qualified security detail to protect his girlfriend. He has fired top career officials, lowered hiring standards, and redirected FBI resources toward investigations of Trump’s perceived “enemies.”

• Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem
Noem presided over FEMA’s disastrous response to the Texas floods. She spends much of her time in staged photo ops with ICE agents and is personally entangled in a scandal involving allegedly pocketed campaign donations.

• Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
Despite deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Hegseth had no relevant experience when Trump pulled him from Fox News and put him in charge of the Pentagon. His loyalty to Trump was on full display when he ordered strikes on Venezuelan drug-running boats — and then allegedly ordered the killing of survivors, an apparent war crime.

• Border Czar Tom Homan
Homan was caught on video accepting a bag containing $50,000 in cash from FBI agents posing as businessmen seeking federal contracts. The administration’s response? Deny everything. Because in Trump’s world, corruption is not a bug — it’s a hiring qualification.

This week, Trump provided yet another example of his own disregard for basic decency. In an online post, he used the slur “retarded” to attack Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The term is widely recognized as the disability-equivalent of the n-word. Beyond the cruelty, Trump managed to alienate a key Republican lawmaker in Indiana whose daughter has Down Syndrome. Trump wants Indiana to redraw its Congressional maps to benefit him and the GOP. That lawmaker now says he will vote to block the plan.

Yes, the Trump operation frequently shoots itself in the foot. But the larger reality is still deeply alarming. Our government is now populated with people who hold their positions not because of their ability or expertise, but because they have demonstrated unwavering loyalty to a single man. These loyalists permeate the bureaucracy, determined to execute Trump’s agenda — regardless of competence, legality, or the long-term damage to the country.

And we are only beginning to understand the consequences.