AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

The High Points:

• Former NY AG Letitia James targeted the NRA and Trump before taking office.

• DOJ is investigating whether those prosecutions amounted to politically motivated abuse of power.

• Legal disputes over acting U.S. attorneys could derail subpoenas and investigations.

Letitia James practically ran for office promising to take down the NRA and Donald Trump, then got elected and immediately did exactly that. That’s not an impartial attorney general—that’s a partisan activist with subpoena power. And yes, her crusade uncovered mismanagement at the NRA, but the selective zeal is impossible to miss. Democrats call it justice; everyone else recognizes a political hit job dressed up as law enforcement.

Now the DOJ—under Trump—is trying to find out whether James abused her authority for partisan ends. But the entire inquiry may get blown up over a bureaucratic technicality involving whether the current acting U.S. Attorney was legally appointed. Imagine that: years of political targeting could collapse because of a job-title dispute. If a judge throws this out, you can bet Bondi and Trump will fight it all the way to the Supreme Court. Someone finally decided to hold James accountable. It’d be a shame if procedure saves her instead.

From Bearing Arms:

Before New York Attorney General Letitia James even held that office, she campaigned on a platform that included a targeted investigation of the National Rifle Association, which she called a “criminal enterprise.” After she won election, one of her first acts was to initiate that investigation, which ultimately led to a civil lawsuit filed by James seeking to dissolve the NRA entirely.

James’s investigation into the NRA was a politically motivated witch hunt that unfortunately discovered a small coven of NRA executives, including Wayne LaPierre, who were ultimately found liable for millions of dollars in misspent funds.

The NRA wasn’t the only political target of the New York AG, of course. James also filed a civil suit against Donald Trump, which resulted in a jury finding Trump liable for inflating his net worth in order to get better terms on financial deals.

After Trump was sworn in for his second term, the Department of Justice empaneled a grand jury to investigate James’s decisions to go after the NRA and the president. The grand jury issued two subpoenas for records related to those investigations, but James has fought the disclosure of those materials.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield presided over a hearing that could determine whether these investigations will move forward, and it may all come down to deciding whether the Acting U.S. Attorney in charge of the investigation is legally on the job.

Sarcone has functioned as the Acting U.S. attorney in Northern New York, but a panel of judges in July refused to permanently appoint him to lead the office following his controversial interim tenure. In response, Attorney General Pam Bondi named him as a “special attorney to the attorney general” who can indefinitely serve as northern New York’s top federal prosecutor.

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