If anyone understands the dangers of prosecutorial overreach, it is President Donald Trump.
He endured an FBI raid on his home, four criminal indictments, and years of attempts by political opponents to defeat him in court rather than at the ballot box. Whether one agreed with every charge or not, the president’s broader message resonated with millions of Americans: Prosecutors wield enormous power, and that power can be abused.
That is why ending the weaponization of the justice system became one of the defining promises of Trump’s second administration.
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Yet one of the nation’s most powerful federal prosecutors’ offices appears not to have gotten the message.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has built its reputation on aggressive white-collar prosecutions. Sometimes that reputation is deserved. But its prosecution of former Tricolor CEO Daniel Chu increasingly looks like the very sort of lawfare Trump has vowed to end.
Chu, the son of Chinese immigrants, built Tricolor into one of the country’s largest providers of auto financing for consumers with limited or damaged credit histories. His company served a market that traditional lenders often ignored, helping working families obtain reliable transportation and a chance to build credit.
In December, however, federal prosecutors accused Chu of orchestrating a massive fraud involving more than $800 million in loans. Three former executives have pleaded guilty and are reportedly cooperating with the government.
But despite the dramatic allegations — and an unusually public announcement of the indictment — the government has yet to publicly identify the kind of evidence observers would expect in a case of this magnitude that ties Chu himself to a deliberate scheme to defraud.
Instead, prosecutors reached for one of the most extraordinary weapons in the federal criminal code.
They charged Chu under the continuing financial crimes enterprise statute, also called the “financial kingpin” charge. Modeled after the continuing criminal enterprise statute used against drug cartel leaders, the law carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life.
The statute has been used so infrequently — Chu’s case is the first time the statute has been invoked in over a decade — that legal commentators have described it as an outlier in white-collar criminal law. Reviving it against a corporate executive should require overwhelming evidence and extraordinary circumstances.
Chu’s attorneys argue that neither exists.
In recent court filings, they describe the indictment as “hopelessly vague,” contend the allegations concerning Chu’s role are “sparse,” and argue prosecutors have pointed to no contemporaneous documentary evidence supporting their central allegation that Chu knowingly participated in the fraud.
Those claims will ultimately be tested in court. But they raise an obvious question: Why invoke one of the most severe financial crime statutes on the books before establishing a stronger public evidentiary foundation?
That question becomes even more relevant given one of the prosecutors leading the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Micah Fergenson previously served in the Obama White House as executive assistant to Norm Eisen, who later became one of the architects of Trump’s first impeachment and remains one of Trump’s most outspoken critics. Fergenson also worked on former President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and transition team. During the 2024 election, he publicly “liked” a LinkedIn post encouraging volunteers to help elect Kamala Harris.
Such an appearance of political bias from a federal prosecutor is difficult to ignore when the same prosecutor is pursuing an unusually aggressive prosecution that seems fundamentally at odds with the priorities of the current administration.
Trump has repeatedly condemned what he calls the weaponization of the justice system.
“It’s called lawfare. It’s called weaponization of justice,” Trump declared after his election victory. His administration has since pledged to end “the weaponization of the Justice Department” and has taken concrete steps to remove officials associated with what it views as politically motivated prosecutions.
That commitment should not stop at cases involving the president himself. The principle is much bigger than one man.
If federal prosecutors can dust off a rarely used “financial kingpin” statute carrying a potential life sentence without presenting compelling public evidence that a CEO personally orchestrated fraud, then that is a threat to all of corporate America.
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Justice requires more than aggressive headlines and dramatic press conferences. It requires restraint, proportionality, and confidence that prosecutors are seeking justice rather than simply securing convictions.
Trump has made clear that America should move beyond lawfare. The Southern District of New York should start listening.
George Landrith serves as the president of Frontiers of Freedom and penned the book Let Freedom Ring… Again: Can Self-Evident Truths Save America from Further Decline?