Michael Barbaro

Well, I wonder where this ends up leaving the president's vision for retribution.

Because it was always our understanding that in the second term, he learned from the mistakes of the first.

And in the first term, he really struggled to carry out retribution.

In the second term, he was going to appoint people who were willing to do what he wanted against his enemies and who were supposed to be qualified to do it.

And this ruling suggests that's not really the case.

Right.

The thinking here seems to be if you can't find a prosecutor who will do this work of retribution, then go find a judge who will.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

On Monday night, James Comey released a video about the dismissal of his indictment.

In it, Comey said that he expects President Trump to come after him again, but that he believes an independent federal judiciary would protect him and anyone else targeted for retribution by the president.

In its latest act of retribution, the Trump administration opened an investigation of Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona over allegations that his participation in a video statement to members of the U.S.

military was an act of official misconduct

Kelly, a retired Navy captain and astronaut, was one of six Democratic lawmakers who, in the video, told American troops that they have the right to ignore illegal orders issued by Trump, a message that has infuriated the president.

As a result, the Defense Department is now investigating whether Kelly violated the military's code of justice, which applies to retired service members.

In theory, Kelly could be recalled to active duty or disciplined, a possibility that legal experts said was both remote and legally dubious.

Today's episode was produced by Rochelle Banja, Diana Nguyen, Mary Wilson, and Rob Zipko.

It was edited by Lexi Diao and Rachel Quester, contains music by Alishaba Etube and Marion Lozano, and was engineered by Chris Wood.

That's it for The Daily.

I'm Michael Bavaro.