So at this writing, a striking number of prominent figures who spent years opposing Donald Trump at all costs — including at the cost of the rule of law — are now themselves facing active investigations. The cases vary, and yes, an investigation is not evidence of guilt. But taken together, they show that several controversies once treated as closed—or largely political—are now receiving serious scrutiny.
So where are they going?
Let’s start with one that many of us perceived as bordering on silly, but which recent reporting actually makes a bit more interesting: James Comey and his infamous seashells.
James Comey — The “86 47” case is actually producing new evidence. Former FBI Director Comey is already under federal indictment over his May 2025 Instagram post showing seashells arranged as “86 47,” which prosecutors contend could reasonably be understood as a threat against President Trump. Comey says he did not intend violence and did not understand the phrase that way. But newly disclosed evidence challenges that. According to prosecutors, two minutes before Comey posted the photograph, his wife, Patrice, texted him a screenshot of a definition of “86” stating that it meant “to get rid of or refuse service.”
Investigators also obtained communications involving an unnamed person acquainted with the Comey family who contacted Patrice Comey after the posting and warned that some people viewed it as a call for violence. Investigators subsequently interviewed that person.
The government is also pointing to Comey’s own fiction. His novel FDR Drive, released shortly after the posting, involves a social-media figure whose rhetoric inspires violence against political enemies. Prosecutors argue that this undermines Comey’s claim that he was oblivious to how coded online language could be interpreted.
They have also disclosed a message from Comey’s publishing agent telling him he had “gone viral,” to which Comey responded that while that was not his intention, he would be fine with it if it sold books. Comey’s lawyers are fighting back aggressively, arguing that investigators distorted evidence, omitted exculpatory information from warrant applications and are pursuing a politically motivated prosecution.
Our assessment: Still quite thin. The fact that his wife warned him before he did it does add some heft. But really: seashells? Truth is, the administration blew the original case against Comey regarding lying to Congress and obstruction by not simply appointing a special prosecutor. They had a far better case there. We get that the seashell case is somewhat in lieu of the original case. But it risks trivializing other important DOJ cases (see below). In the end, more than anything else, Comey is guilty of being a nitwit and a criminally politicized weirdo.
Anthony Fauci — This one is the real deal, and federal and state scrutiny is intensifying. Former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci is facing several overlapping fronts. After repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment during a Senate Homeland Security Committee appearance, the committee voted 8–7 to hold him in contempt. Will that go anywhere?
Doubtful. As we have written and opined on, Fauci has the right to take the Fifth, despite the Biden “pardon,” especially due to the fact that state investigations against him are being reported.
So DOJ is now confronted with the question of whether to pursue a criminal contempt case, or to empanel a special grand jury and subpoena Fauci into it. This space has advocated for the latter, and note that Jeanine Pirro has in fact convened a special grand jury in D.C. (although public reporting has not established that Fauci is the target).
Meanwhile, the investigation is no longer merely federal. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on August 5 that his office had subpoenaed Fauci in an investigation examining awards, grants, financial incentives, professional opportunities and COVID-related guidance affecting Florida consumers and businesses. Florida is coordinating with the attorneys general of West Virginia and Louisiana. The stated focus includes whether Fauci benefited financially from decisions or guidance issued during the pandemic.
Our position remains unchanged: Federally, get Fauci into a grand jury and grant him immunity. He then won’t be able to take the Fifth. More important than locking up an 85-year-old man whose reputation is in tatters (and who must be mortified over the contents of his diary being released) is getting to the truth on COVID’s origins and our response to the pandemic. However repugnant Fauci’s actions may have been, this is too important to settle for a contempt charge on an old man that the left will turn into a hero. Better to expose him—and finally get the truth.
Mar-a-Lago — Investigators are examining the investigators. The Justice Department has opened a significant inquiry into the FBI’s August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago and the broader sequence of federal investigations targeting Trump. The Florida-based probe is reportedly being overseen by longtime Trump ally and former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova and is exploring whether government officials participated in a broader criminal conspiracy that violated Trump’s rights (recall, Trump was a private citizen at the time). Investigators have recently approached FBI personnel connected to the Mar-a-Lago search seeking voluntary interviews.
The significance is that investigators appear to be looking beyond whether individual agents followed proper procedure. Reporting indicates that the inquiry is examining how the decision to search Mar-a-Lago was made, disagreements between DOJ and FBI officials over the search, and whether the raid formed part of a larger pattern of improper investigative activity directed at Trump.
This probe grew out of a broader examination of the government’s handling of Trump-related investigations dating back to the “Russia collusion” hoax. No charges have been announced, and the officials who approved or participated in the search have not been publicly named or accused of crimes. But the investigation is active and has now reached the interview stage.
Our take: Wait and see. There was significant overreach in the Mar a Lago raid; that seems obvious. And there were reportedly heated disagreements among the officials who proposed, approved, and carried it out. Whether that rises to the level of criminality and/or a violation of Donald Trump’s civil rights has to be shown by evidence — and none is public yet.
Eric Swalwell — Multiple investigations, plus the Fang Fang files. This one is so potentially interesting, we’re going to look at it in more detail, below.
Overall, the common denominator among all this is that several of Donald Trump’s most vocal antagonists now find themselves beyond the realm of political rhetoric and facing subpoenas, search warrants, grand-jury activity, document releases and witness interviews. The next question is whether any of those investigative threads ultimately produces additional indictments—and if there’s real evidence to support convictions.
To be clear: we have no love for any of these people. And we understand that turnabout is fair play. But wherever you sit politically, cases turn on evidence, not opinion. The officials pursuing each of these investigations would do themselves a favor by keeping that in mind.
Eric Swalwell’s Terrible, Awful, Really Not-So-Great Week
Disgraced former Congressman Eric Swalwell spent years talking about FBI investigations while serving on several key committees during his time in the House: the House Judiciary Committee, House Intelligence Committee and House Homeland Security Committee.
Now he’s the one receiving the FBI’s scrutiny, and the investigation into him appears to be heating up.
Federal agents seized Swalwell’s iPhone and MacBook Pro last Saturday after intercepting him at San Francisco International Airport. The next day, agents executed another search warrant at his Washington, D.C., residence.
That is a significant escalation. Take it from us, folks: the FBI doesn’t seize your phone and computer because it wants to ask a few follow-up questions. Also, a federal judge would not sign off on the search warrant without investigators establishing probable cause to the judge’s satisfaction.
The investigation reportedly centers on allegations of sexual misconduct against Swalwell, who resigned from Congress and abandoned his campaign for California governor in April after four women accused him of misconduct ranging from sending unsolicited explicit images to sexual assault. Swalwell has acknowledged “mistakes in judgment” but denies the assault allegations.
There are also investigations underway in New York and Los Angeles concerning alleged assaults.
But here’s where things get particularly interesting.
The federal warrant filed in the Northern District of California identifies 18 U.S.C. § 242—the federal criminal civil-rights statute prohibiting someone acting under color of law from willfully depriving another person of federally protected rights. The warrant was certified by an FBI agent assigned to the San Francisco Field Office’s Public Corruption and Civil Rights Squad.
That raises an obvious question: What does the government believe Swalwell did using his position as a government official? Is this solely about the alleged sexual-assault cases, or do investigators believe there could be more here?
There is also some remarkable history between Swalwell and the FBI.
Newly released FBI records shed additional light on his relationship with Christine Fang, AKA “Fang Fang,” a suspected Chinese intelligence operative who cultivated relationships with American politicians. According to an FBI interview summary, Swalwell acknowledged having “physical relations” with Fang on a couple of occasions and said their last physical encounter occurred in March 2015. He said they never dated and characterized the relationship as casual.
But was it casual for her—or was getting close to politicians part of what she was doing for China? Why did she pick him and what did she want?
And why target Swalwell when he was merely a Dublin, California, City Council?
Fang also helped Swalwell politically, including through fundraising activity and referrals of potential interns. The FBI ultimately warned Swalwell about concerns surrounding Fang — something known as a “defensive brief” — and Swalwell cooperated with investigators. He was never charged with wrongdoing in the Fang matter, and the House Ethics Committee later closed its investigation without taking action against him. High ranking Democrats including Nancy Pelosi shielded him, clearly cultivating him to succeed Newsom as California Governor.
Still, the episode raised obvious counterintelligence concerns. Swalwell was serving on the House Intelligence Committee during part of this period. He was ultimately removed from the Intelligence Committee in 2023 by the Republican-controlled House, although that occurred years after the FBI first warned him about Fang.
The Fang case is separate from the current investigation. But the fact that a member of the House Intelligence Committee had an intimate relationship with a woman suspected by U.S. authorities of ties to Chinese intelligence is now back in the spotlight at an extraordinarily bad time for Swalwell.
And that brings us to perhaps the most important document in this entire case: the search-warrant affidavit.
A warrant tells us what agents were authorized to search and seize. The underlying affidavit is where an FBI agent lays out the facts establishing probable cause—what investigators know, what witnesses allegedly told them, what evidence they already possess and why they believe additional evidence will be found.
Swalwell’s affidavit apparently remains under seal. If it is eventually unsealed, even in redacted form, we may finally learn why federal investigators believe § 242 applies and exactly what they were looking for on Swalwell’s phone, computer... and in his home.
And a final point: Swalwell may fall victim to the same technological ignorance that helped sink Hunter Biden. Hunter either never realized — or was okay with — his phone texts backing up onto his Apple laptop. As a result, the infamous “laptop from hell” revealed not only its own contents, but all the text messages Hunter had sent and received on his phone.
Will the same default option on his Apple devices also sink Swalwell?
Never mind what was automatically stored in the cloud. Now that the FBI has begun executing search warrants… all this stuff is in play.
Swalwell has not been arrested, indicted or charged with violating § 242—or any other federal crime in this investigation—but he sure must be wondering where it all went wrong.
Most of us who were paying attention had serious questions about Swalwell long before this. We may soon find out just how right we were.
This Week’s NIGHTWATCH: The Lindsay Clancy Case
Friends, join Paul and ace New England crime reporter John DePetro as they do a deep-dive into the case that has captured the interest of the country: Lindsay Clancy’s insanity defense in her prosecution for murdering her three children.
John has been in court every day, watching the jury, the lawyers, the judge, and yes, Lindsay herself.
So: What is the atmosphere inside that courtroom? How has Lindsay’s comportment changed (it has, according to John)? What has the jury visibly reacted to?
And what could be an outcome if Lindsay is indeed found not guilty by reason of insanity? Because clearly, many of those demonstrating outside the court have not thought this all the way through….
Join us for coverage you won’t see anywhere else!
Podcast: This Week In History: The Lord, The King, And The IRA’s Day of Infamy
So as the IRA and the British Loyalists make common cause against the influx of migrants onto the Emerald Isle, it’s important to recall that this is a relatively recent development. Back in the day the relationship there was not only contentious… it was violent, and often fatal.
On August 27, 1979 — 47 years ago this week—British Lord Mountbatten, the cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, was blown up on his fishing boat along Ireland’s west coast in County Sligo. It’s a beautiful, rugged area, punctuated (at the time) by Mountbatten’s impossible-to-believe summer castle. Three others were also killed and several injured.
But that was just the start of the bloodletting…. 18 British soldiers were ambushed later in the day.
The reverberations from those events— and the resulting joint U.S.-British posture towards terrorism — echo to this day. In fact following the assassination, U.S. donations to NORAID, the Irish-American support organization dedicated to a United Ireland, plummeted, and the IRA cause has never recovered in America. And the resulting investigation is a tale in itself.
Today, Ireland has begun to unite around a perceived common threat — a massive influx of unvetted migrants who are straining Ireland’s traditional social safety net and cultural identity.
But will that hold… in light of history like this?
So click HERE to join us for another: This Week In History.
(Caution: firewall!)
True Crime Girl: Find This Creep!
Even if you already thought blue-city living was scary, this case will terrify you.
A man with a creepy Chucky doll-style Halloween mask was captured on surveillance video harassing about 16 people he encountered near Philadelphia’s City Hall. Most of the encounters occurred during the early morning hours of August 12.
One man can be seen crouching to his knees in fear; he chased another man who ran from him. The worst of his encounters involved a 40-year-old female jogger. Hughes allegedly confronted her and asked her whether she was “ready to die.” He held one hand behind his back as if he had a weapon. She fled from him and suffered a fall which caused what District Attorney Larry Krasner described as a “severe leg injury” — which would therefore support an aggravated-assault charge even though the perpetrator didn’t attack her physically. I can tell you as a woman who likes to run, an experience like this would have scarred me for life and I don’t think I would ever run alone again.
One woman, Jameka Wilson, told CBS that when he chased her she turned around and faced him, prepared to fight, and even managed to kick him in the chest. The masked loser, so desperate to be intimidating, backed away and ran off.
Why would someone want to terrorize people for no reason? Well, he was seen with a cellphone. Was he filming this for personal amusement or to post on social media?
And what if someone had a heart attack. Would that have resulted in a murder charge? (Doubtful, in Krasner’s Philadelphia).
The female jogger with the leg injury was the only victim to formally come forward to police; the rest of the people targeted were seen on surveillance video while the case was being investigated. Police are asking for any others who think they were victims of this nut to come forward as well.
As of now, police have identified the suspect as 22-year-old Zymire Hughes and have released a photo of him. Hughes was also reportedly seen acting strangely around businesses in the Philadelphia City Hall area, where he apparently entered or attempted to enter businesses. One was a Dunkin’, where he was refused service while wearing the mask.
After the harassment incidents, surveillance reportedly tracked him into Philly’s transportation system, SEPTA. Two SEPTA officers reportedly instructed him to remove the mask; he lifted it partially and then walked away. Investigators then tracked him on SEPTA’s Route 33 bus back to an apartment near 23rd and Venango Streets in North Philadelphia. So the cops have a lot to go on.
Reporting indicates police believe that Hughes may have fled Pennsylvania. Detectives said he left his apartment carrying packed bags.
Unsurprisingly, Hughes was reportedly already on probation in connection with a criminal case originating in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania but there is no public information about what that offense was. District Attorney Krasner did say, however, that these latest harassment incidents would constitute a probation violation.
An arrest warrant has been issued and Philadelphia police are working with the U.S. Marshals Service to locate Hughes. Hopefully, this lunatic will be apprehended soon, before his disturbing behavior escalates.
Which, as anyone paying attention knows, is often the case with perpetrators like this.
And finally…
It’s sure starting to look that way.
I borrowed this from your post on X yesterday. I can't think of a more appropriate charge for Director Comey. Of course we'd need to identify the other people involved.
18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy: "If two or more persons... in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States...
On day one of the Trump Administration we had evidence that is what happened.
Now we're prosecuting a case based on an ambiguous crime.
I worked at a bar when I went to school and we 86'd people. It was another way of saying barred. Usually they would sober up and come in and man up and that was that. They were alive.
How was this not the number one issue for the Justice Department on day1?
WTF was our strategy? There was a fire in the basement of our government and it's still smoldering. Ask any FDNY, you gotta pull that crap out and get rid of it. You can't just leave it there. Sometimes it looks worse than after the fire was out but you can sleep knowing it won't flare up and consume.
It reminds me of Benghazi. What exactly was the crime. Was there a crime? Were we running guns there?
Trey Gowdy left me with more questions then he answered and I haven't been a fan since.
Obama and Hillary went to bed. That's a crappy political move but it's not a crime unless they abandoned their post while they were aware of the severity of the situation. Then "aware" and "severity" are ambiguous terms.
There is a pattern here of show trials much like the former Soviet Union.
Guys like Comey will walk and men like Trump will pay the ultimate price.
Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown
I was wondering if the autopsy photos of the children were shown in court to the jury. They are the victim in the Clancy case.