President Donald Trump is committing impeachable offenses at a dizzying clip, weaponizing the federal government against his enemies and lining his pockets with taxpayer dollars.

In his latest offense, Trump’s Department of Justice is criminally investigating E. Jean Carroll, the writer whose lawsuits led to Trump being found liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

According to CNN, the DOJ is investigating Carroll for perjury, claiming that she lied in a 2022 deposition in her ultimately successful lawsuit against Trump. DOJ prosecutors say Carroll perjured herself when she said her lawsuit against Trump wasn’t being financed by any outside entities. But before the trial was set to begin, Carroll’s lawyers told the judge and Trump attorney Alina Habba that billionaire Reid Hoffman covered some of the trial expenses.

Habba—whom Trump later appointed to serve as a U.S. attorney until a judge kicked her out—had accused Carroll’s lawyers during the trial of having “conspired to conceal the truth for nearly six months.”

Yet a judge blocked Trump’s legal team from asking about how Carroll’s lawsuit was being financed during the trial, which Carroll went on to win.

Trump’s DOJ going after Carroll is clearly a revenge effort. He is livid that she was awarded nearly $90 million in damages between two separate cases—$5 million for damages related to the alleged sexual abuse and another $83 million for defamation. (Trump has been appealing both decisions for years and is now hoping the Supreme Court, which he stacked with right-wing hacks, will throw out the cases and prevent Carroll from receiving the funds awarded to her.)

“This is an unbelievable abuse of power,” Democratic Rep. Adam Smith of California told CNN on Wednesday.

Sen. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who is also a target of Trump’s weaponized DOJ over bullshit mortgage-fraud allegations, also slammed the DOJ probe into Carroll.

“First, Trump weaponized the DOJ to target his political enemies. Now, perversely, he’s targeting E. Jean Carroll, the woman who credibly and successfully sued him for sexual assault,” Schiff wrote in a post on X. “He’s using the power of the DOJ to go after his own victims. It’s a vile attack on the rule of law and a disgusting insult to victims everywhere.”

Should charges be brought against Carroll, it will be the just latest vindictive prosecution effort by the DOJ.

Already, Trump forced the DOJ to charge former FBI Director James Comey twice on dubious charges—once for supposed perjury and again for allegedly making threats against Trump. The first case has been thrown out because the court determined the U.S. attorney who sought the charges—Lindsey Halligan—was not legally serving in her role when she sought the indictment.

Trump also sought charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James for bogus mortgage-fraud charges, which were thrown out by a federal judge for the same reason as in Comey’s case. Trump’s DOJ tried to indict James again but failed when a grand jury declined to pursue charges—something that rarely happens.

Trump went after James because she successfully prosecuted him for charges of falsifying business records, which now makes him forever a convicted felon.

And a federal judge last week went as far as to throw out criminal charges against Maryland resident Kilmar Albrego Garcia—whom Trump wrongfully shipped off to a torture prison in El Salvador—due to vindictive prosecution. Again, that is a ruling that almost never happens since it is so difficult to prove.

If Carroll were ultimately charged, she would almost certainly seek to have the case thrown out on similar grounds.

Ultimately, Trump’s use of the DOJ as his revenge squad is not popular, with majorities of Americans saying that indictments of Trump’s perceived enemies have been unjustified.

What’s more, a majority of Americans now believe Trump should be impeached.

Should Democrats win control of the House this fall, you can be sure they will probe these investigations—and possibly move forward with impeachment.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos