Ailia Zehra, Alternet

President Donald Trump's critics are accusing him of transforming government power into an instrument of retaliation, arguing that his administration’s pursuit of “retribution” against perceived enemies signals a departure from legal norms and erodes institutional independence.

In an article for The New Republic published Sunday, Paul Starr, a professor of Sociology at Princeton University, argued that Trump’s focus on revenge is not just a personal obsession but a political strategy rooted in a broader cultural reaction against decades of social change.

"The air is thick with talk of revenge, and it’s not limited to Donald Trump’s personal vendetta against individual enemies like James Comey, Letitia James, and John Bolton," the article read....

Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Keller Jr. openly admitted at the arraignment of New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) Friday that the prosecution in her federal case is still sorting through what evidence it has.

“I am going through the discovery right now,” he told U.S. District Judge Jamar Walker (an appointee of former President Joe Biden), per a report published in NOTUS.

The admission came as James – who pleaded not guilty in Norfolk, Virginia on Friday – faced a courtroom that pressed the government for clarity and timeliness on its preparations. ...

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer took aim at Senate Republicans after Democrats blocked a bill that would have guaranteed pay for military and federal workers during the ongoing government shutdown.

“Senate Republicans should be embarrassed by how bad they’re messaging this,” Spicer, who served as Trump’s first press secretary, said Friday on his podcast, in remarks highlighted by The Daily Beast.

“They should have been out on the steps last night with military members and Border Patrol," Spicer said....

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said he’d be “apoplectic” if former President Joe Biden acted the same way President Donald Trump is regarding recent military operations in Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea – a rare public rebuke from a member of Trump’s own party.

Speaking Friday on C-SPAN’s Ceasefire program, Lankford criticized the Trump administration for ordering strikes on Venezuelan vessels without first consulting Congress.

“The administration needs to give insight into Congress. That’s part of it,” he said. “If this was happening with this level of insight under the Biden administration, I’d be apoplectic."...

A former red state chief election official who once alleged that the CIA rigged the 2020 presidential race is now playing a central role in the Justice Department’s (DOJ) controversial investigation into that same election — a move that critics say deepens fears of political retribution within federal agencies.

Democracy Docket reported Thursday that Andrew McCoy “Mac” Warner, who served as West Virginia’s Republican secretary of state until earlier this year, has emerged as a senior attorney in DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

“His work appears to be part of a dangerous cross-government unit aimed at exacting retribution against President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies,” the report noted....