Devlin Barrett

That's my life.

Right, because this retribution campaign by the president has delivered some incredible scalps for the president and what he wants.

But it did so in a very legally risky way, a very – I think a lot of people would say factually risky way –

And as important as these cases are and as alarming as it has been to some people to see the president publicly order prosecution of people he doesn't like...

I think the unanswered question until Monday was, would the court system go along with this?

Would judges go along with this?

And the first cut, and it's not going to be the last cut, but the first answer to that question is an emphatic no.

It's a deep cut to the president and the administration in a couple of ways.

First, in the sense that he has lost, for the time being at least, these two centerpiece cases of his drive for retribution.

And it's also a deep cut to the degree that he is being told that the way he's running the Justice Department is not appropriate under the law, is not what the law says necessarily.

you can do with the Justice Department.

And another way to think about the significance of this moment is Trump has publicly declared time and again that people he doesn't like are criminals and that they should be prosecuted.

A lot of times, the facts and the law of what he's talking about don't really stand up to scrutiny.

And one of, I think, the great tests of this moment for the legal system and for the administration

is to what degree does Trump's version of reality impose its will on the court system?

The courts are about establishing facts and the courts are about following the law.

Right.

So let's take a look at who each of these people are and what they're accused of.

So when it comes to James Comey, he was obviously the FBI director when Trump became president the first time.

And he oversaw the FBI as it investigated Russian election interference, as it investigated the Trump campaign.