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The Justice Department suffered a stinging public defeat this week when federal grand juries in Virginia twice declined to return an indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James, a development that exposes the fragility of politically driven prosecutions. Prosecutors had sought charges over a mortgage application, but grand jurors in both Norfolk and Alexandria found the case lacking—an outcome that is exceptionally rare and deeply embarrassing for a department that should be above partisan theater.
Veteran legal voices on the right were blunt: Judge Andrew Napolitano and others called the failure to secure indictments humiliating for the DOJ, and not without reason. When career prosecutors originally declined to bring charges and judges later dismissed the cases over procedural defects, what we’re seeing is not justice being done but a spectacle of vindictiveness dressed up as law enforcement.
The earlier dismissals were rooted in clear legal malpractice: a judge found the prosecutor who brought the charges, Lindsey Halligan, had been unlawfully appointed, voiding the indictments she obtained. That isn’t a technicality; it’s a judicial rebuke to a department that allowed political loyalty to trump prosecutorial propriety. Americans deserve a Justice Department that follows the law, not one that manufactures authority to carry out a political hit.
This whole episode fits a disturbing pattern of the Trump-era prosecutions of political opponents, where the White House reportedly pressed the DOJ to pursue enemies rather than let the evidence lead. Grand juries rejecting the government twice in quick succession is a loud repudiation of that approach and should alarm any patriot who believes in the rule of law. If the administration thinks it can weaponize prosecutors to settle political scores, these jurors just told them otherwise.
Legal professionals who have watched grand juries for decades say it’s almost unheard-of for indictments to be denied this way, and their reactions should shame the leadership at Main Justice. Former prosecutors called it a humiliating repudiation and warned that filing weak cases risks eroding public trust in federal law enforcement—exactly the opposite of what Americans need in times of rising crime and global threats. The grand juries did their duty where the politically controlled apparatus did not.
Conservatives who long warned about politicized lawfare are vindicated by this outcome: when loyalty is rewarded over experience, the system collapses into farce. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department must answer to the American people for allowing this circus to unfold and for recruiting amateurs to bring high-profile cases that career prosecutors wouldn’t touch. It’s time for real accountability—no more loyalty tests, no more headline-chasing indictments, and no more weaponizing the halls of justice.
The only healthy takeaway is that ordinary grand jurors still exist as a check when the political actors try to overreach, and they held fast this week. The DOJ can try again, but after two no-bills and a judicial dismissal rooted in illegal appointments, the wise course is to admit the mistake, stop the vendetta, and restore credibility to a once-respected institution. Hardworking Americans deserve a Justice Department that fights real criminals, not political battles.
