Political Persecution in Democracies

Political persecution in a democracy rarely looks like open repression. It is usually described as lawfare – the use of legal procedures, prosecutions, regulatory action, or security clearances to damage a political opponent while maintaining the form of rule of law.

This pattern is debated globally:

• Latin America: The term became common after Brazil’s Lava Jato cases. Lula da Silva was convicted and barred from the 2018 election, which opponents of the prosecution called lawfare to enable Jair Bolsonaro’s election. The convictions were later annulled.  

• Africa and elsewhere: Analysts point to term-limit manipulation, reshuffles of the judiciary and exploitation of legal procedures to sustain power.  

The U.S. case of Biden / Trump is now the most cited example in established democracies.

1) What happened under the Biden administration?
From 2023-2024 Donald Trump faced four criminal cases:

1. Federal classified documents case – Espionage Act and obstruction charges after documents found at Mar-a-Lago. 2. Federal 2020 election interference case – charges of conspiracy to overturn the election. 3. Georgia RICO election case. 4. New York hush-money case brought by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

To handle the federal cases, Attorney General Merrick Garland, a member of the Biden administration, appointed Jack Smith as special counsel in 2022. Smith’s investigation swept up text messages from nearly 50 members of Congress according to later reports. 

Two competing narratives emerged:

View A – Legitimate prosecution: The Biden White House said Biden did not speak to Garland about the cases and would not do so, and that an indictment would not be politically motivated. Supporters argue no former president had been prosecuted before because none had faced these allegations, and special counsel was a firewall. 

View B – Political persecution: Trump and allies argued the timing, novelty, and weakness of charges showed coordination. Missouri’s Attorney General at the time argued “Bragg charged Trump only after Trump declared his candidacy… there is substantial reason to suspect the Biden administration has coordinated”. Trump called it “The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted”. Commentators at Bloomberg Law described it as the DOJ crossing a “Political Rubicon”. 

Both federal cases were dropped after Trump won the 2024 election.

2) Trump’s reaction after returning as President in January 2025
Trump campaigned explicitly on retribution, saying in March 2023 “I am your retribution.” That pledge became a guiding principle of governance in his second term. 

Documented actions include:

• Personnel changes at DOJ/FBI: Within the first 100 days, the Justice Department dismissed or demoted dozens of officials, prosecutors and FBI agents, including some involved in investigations related to Trump and Jan 6.   

• Revocation of clearances and targeting of opponents: On January 21, 2025 he moved to revoke clearances of ex-intel officials who signed the Hunter Biden laptop letter, described as an early indication of determination to exact retribution. By late 2025, Reuters counted at least 470 targets of a campaign of retribution.   

• Weaponization Working Group: The DOJ created a Weaponization Working Group. Its first report accused the Biden DOJ of biased prosecutions. The administration also pushed to pursue cases against foes, with AP reporting in September 2025 that Trump was ramping up pressure on Attorney General Bondi to pursue cases against his foes.   

• Jan 6 pardons and re-litigation of 2020: On day one he pardoned Jan 6 defendants, and in 2025-2026 gave primetime speeches claiming declassified documents showed 2020 election vulnerabilities, asking the FBI director to work with DOJ to “prosecute those responsible”.  
Here again there are two competing narratives:

View A – Corrective action: Supporters see it as dismantling a weaponized system that had been used against him, and holding prior officials accountable.

View B – Weaponization in turn: Critics, including Wikipedia’s summary of his second term, argue “After years of baselessly accusing Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of directing investigations into him, he has made a reality the very weaponization of the Justice Department he once railed against”. 

In democracies, this creates a cycle scholars warn about: each prosecution, whether justified or perceived as persecution, erodes public trust in institutions and makes the next retaliation easier to justify.

Godspeed Nigeria

Samuel Ogbemudia Jr