The Ilhan Omar home search fits a very political pattern for Trump and his DOJ

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It remains to be seen what kind of evidence the Trump Justice Department has against Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, whose DC-area home federal officers searched on Monday .

But it’s worth emphasizing that she’s been a frequent target of Trump, who has often trained his Justice Department on his political enemies . Trump claims he wasn’t involved in the search, but it’s highly unusual for the Justice Department to execute such aggressive investigative steps so close to an election.

And the episode fills out an increasingly remarkable pattern: Leniency for congressional Republicans convicted of crimes, and legal targeting for congressional Democrats — often based on rather thin evidence.

Here’s a telling stat:

Trump has pardoned 9 of the last 11 Republican congressmen to be convicted of federal crimes.

His Justice Department has indicted, tried to indict or taken reported investigative steps against at least 13 Democratic members of Congress since he returned to office.

The pardons are for the vast majority of Republicans convicted since 2010: former Reps. George Santos, Chris Collins and Michael Grimm of New York, Steve Buyer of Indiana, Robin Hayes of North Carolina, Duncan Hunter of California, Steve Stockman of Texas, Rick Renzi of Arizona and Mark Siljander of Michigan.

The only Republican congressmen convicted since 2010 that Trump didn’t pardon have been former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who was convicted in 2015 in a hush money case related to his alleged molestation of high school athletes ( Hastert died last week ), and former Rep. David Rivera of Florida, who was convicted in May and sentenced last week to 10 years in prison for a secret lobbying campaign for Venezuela.

Rivera, a longtime friend of Secretary of State Marco Rubio , has already applied for a pardon.

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On the flipside, Trump’s Justice Department has targeted many Democratic members of Congress.

Some could be for legitimate reasons; now-former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick resigned from Congress in April amid a bipartisan finding of ethics violations and has been indicted. (She has pleaded not guilty.)

But the evidence against others has been thin. That includes the six Democratic members of Congress that the Trump DOJ tried and failed to indict for cutting a video telling members of the military not to obey illegal orders (even though that’s guidance service members are already given).

All told, the Trump Justice Department has secured indictments of two Democratic members: Cherfilus-McCormick and Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey , who’s accused of assaulting immigration agents during a chaotic scene at a migrant detention center last year. (The indictment does not allege the officers were injured and she has pleaded not guilty.)

The DOJ failed to indict those other six members: Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.

And it has taken investigate steps (of varying degrees) against: Omar, Sen. Adam Schiff of California , Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona , Rep. Robert Garcia of California and Rep. Eugene Vindman of Virginia .

And when it comes to the partisan breakdown of Trump’s pardons, there are few outliers among members of Congress.

Trump has pardoned two former Democratic members of Congress. But one of them was former Rep. and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was once a contestant on Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice” and became a staunch Trump ally. And the other was Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, whom the president seems to have pardoned in hopes that he would change parties .

When it comes to investigations against Republicans in Congress, about the only major one appears to be into Rep. Cory Mills of Florida , who some outlets reported in July faced scrutiny. But his problems appear to be so extensive — he lost his primary amid allegations against him — that they would be difficult for the DOJ to ignore. (Trump even claimed after the congressman lost that he’d urged him to drop out of the race.)

Trump’s DOJ has also backed off previously existing investigations or cases involving Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee , former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska and, reportedly, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine , according to a major recent ProPublica report.

Some Republicans have embraced Trump’s two-tiered approach to legal scrutiny, arguing turnabout is fair play after the Justice Department under President Joe Biden probed many Republicans.

But there is far less evidence suggesting those investigations resulted from any political pressure coming from the Biden White House. Trump’s DOJ has also managed an extraordinary number of failed indictments against political foes (despite indictments needing to clear a low bar).

And in contrast to the thin evidence against figures like the six congressional Democrats, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey, the vast majority of Trump allies who were indicted wound up being convicted .

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目前还不清楚特朗普司法部掌握了哪些针对明尼苏达州民主党众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔的证据，联邦官员周一搜查了她在华盛顿特区附近的住所。

但值得强调的是，她一直是特朗普的攻击目标，特朗普经常利用司法部打击他的政治对手。特朗普声称他没有参与搜查，但司法部在如此临近选举的时候采取如此激进的调查措施实属罕见。

这一事件进一步印证了一个越来越引人注目的模式：对被判有罪的国会共和党人给予宽大处理，而对国会民主党人则进行法律打击——通常是基于相当薄弱的证据。

这里有一个很能说明问题的数据：

特朗普赦免了最近11名被判犯有联邦罪行的共和党国会议员中的9人。

自他重返政坛以来，他的司法部已对至少 13 名民主党国会议员提起诉讼、试图提起诉讼或采取了调查措施。

此次赦免对象为 2010 年以来被定罪的绝大多数共和党人：纽约州前众议员乔治·桑托斯、克里斯·柯林斯和迈克尔·格里姆，印第安纳州前众议员史蒂夫·拜尔，北卡罗来纳州前众议员罗宾·海耶斯，加利福尼亚州前众议员邓肯·亨特，德克萨斯州前众议员史蒂夫·斯托克曼，亚利桑那州前众议员里克·伦齐和密歇根州前众议员马克·西尔扬德。

自 2010 年以来，特朗普没有赦免的被定罪的共和党国会议员只有两位：一位是前众议院议长丹尼斯·哈斯特，他于 2015 年因涉嫌猥亵高中运动员的封口费案被定罪（哈斯特上周去世）；另一位是佛罗里达州前众议员戴维·里维拉，他于 5 月被定罪，并于上周因秘密游说委内瑞拉而被判处 10 年监禁。

里维拉是国务卿马可·卢比奥的多年好友，他已经申请了赦免。

通往2026年中期选举的道路现在就开始了。

每周，亚伦·布莱克都会以犀利的分析，拨开政治迷雾，深入剖析可能决定国会控制权的选情、候选人和趋势。订阅《20/26 视野》周刊，了解今年中期选举的最新动态。

另一方面，特朗普的司法部却将矛头指向了许多民主党国会议员。

有些辞职可能是出于正当理由；前众议员希拉·切尔菲勒斯-麦考密克 (Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick) 因两党一致认定其违反道德规范，于今年四月辞去国会职务并被起诉。（她已否认所有指控。）

但针对其他人的证据却很薄弱。这其中包括六名民主党国会议员，特朗普政府司法部曾试图起诉他们，但最终未能成功。他们被控剪辑了一段视频，视频中军方人员被告知不要服从非法命令（尽管军方人员早已被告知要服从非法命令）。

总而言之，特朗普领导的司法部已对两名民主党议员提起诉讼：切尔菲勒斯-麦考密克和新泽西州众议员拉莫尼卡·麦克艾弗。麦克艾弗被控去年在移民拘留中心的一场混乱中袭击移民官员。（起诉书并未指控官员受伤，她也已否认所有指控。）

司法部未能起诉其他六名成员：亚利桑那州参议员马克·凯利、密歇根州参议员埃莉萨·斯洛特金、科罗拉多州众议员杰森·克劳、宾夕法尼亚州众议员克里斯·德卢齐奥和克里西·霍拉汉以及新罕布什尔州众议员玛吉·古德兰德。

并且已经对以下人员采取了不同程度的调查措施：奥马尔、加利福尼亚州参议员亚当·希夫、亚利桑那州参议员鲁本·加列戈、加利福尼亚州众议员罗伯特·加西亚和弗吉尼亚州众议员尤金·温德曼。

而就特朗普赦免令的党派构成而言，国会议员中鲜有例外。

特朗普赦免了两名前民主党国会议员。其中一位是前众议员、伊利诺伊州州长罗德·布拉戈耶维奇，他曾是特朗普真人秀节目《学徒》的参赛者，后来成为特朗普的坚定盟友。另一位是来自德克萨斯州的众议员亨利·奎利亚尔，总统赦免他似乎是希望他能改变党派立场。

就针对国会共和党人的调查而言，目前看来唯一一起比较重要的案件似乎只针对佛罗里达州众议员科里·米尔斯。一些媒体在7月份报道称，他正面临审查。但他的问题似乎非常严重——他在党内初选中落败，而这一切都源于针对他的指控——司法部很难对此置之不理。（特朗普甚至在米尔斯落败后声称，他曾敦促米尔斯退出竞选。）

据 ProPublica 最近的一份重要报告显示，特朗普的司法部也放弃了之前涉及田纳西州众议员安迪·奥格尔斯、内布拉斯加州前众议员杰夫·福滕伯里以及（据报道）缅因州参议员苏珊·柯林斯的调查或案件。

一些共和党人接受了特朗普对法律审查采取的双轨制方法，认为在乔·拜登总统领导下的司法部调查了许多共和党人之后，以牙还牙也是公平的。

但几乎没有证据表明这些调查是受到拜登白宫的政治压力所致。特朗普的司法部也成功地对政治对手发起了大量失败的起诉（尽管起诉门槛很低）。

与针对六名国会民主党人、纽约州总检察长莱蒂西亚·詹姆斯和前联邦调查局局长詹姆斯·科米等人的证据不足形成鲜明对比的是，绝大多数被起诉的特朗普盟友最终都被定罪。