Lawfare is more than a war against Trump; it's a war against all of us

With great power comes great responsibility. Yet the federal government, perhaps the most powerful entity ever to exist, routinely abuses that power.
The term “lawfare” has become more common than ever after the repeated attempts of President Trump’s political enemies to use the law and the agencies ostensibly in charge of enforcing it to attack and silence him. What many people still don’t fully appreciate, however, is that the kind of lawfare exemplified by Mr. Trump’s trials and tribulations is the standard pattern and practice of the federal government.
For far too long, federal agencies have routinely used their clout to bully, coerce, threaten and even extort their victims. When federal agencies behave in such a manner, the rule of law is weakened, and we all suffer. A pending lawsuit against the U.S. government provides a chilling example of this sad state of affairs.
Steven Nerayoff, an adviser to the ethereum cryptocurrency network, recently filed notice of his intent to sue the U.S. government for $9.6 billion in damages. Mr. Nerayoff was arrested in 2019 on charges of criminal extortion. Mr. Nerayoff’s attorneys contend the charges are “baseless” and “fabricated.” Indeed, the charges were dropped in May 2023 after prosecutors admitted they had obtained material exculpatory evidence and could not prove the charges against Mr. Nerayoff beyond a reasonable doubt.
On the surface, a “baseless” prosecution based on “fabricated” evidence is bad enough, but Mr. Nerayoff and his legal team said the FBI targeted him in an intentional setup to get him to turn over evidence against other people in the crypto scene. Mr. Nerayoff said he was arrested by a dozen armed FBI agents on Sept. 17, 2019, and interrogated for hours in an unmarked van. The agents told Mr. Nerayoff that he would “not see his young minor children grow old” unless he cooperated with them.
It’s hard to think of a better example of blatant government malfeasance than the fabrication of extortion charges against someone to extort them.
Until recently, most Americans probably still believed that federal law enforcement agencies went only after people they suspected of breaking the law. With the failed lawfare against Mr. Trump, the Nerayoff case and others, it has become crystal clear that there have been and still are those in federal agencies who are all too willing to use their power and authority to target innocent people and ruin their lives.
Unfortunately, this rot is not limited to the Justice Department and the FBI. In a recent opinion article, I detailed the cases of New York developer Richard Xia and crypto firm DEBT Box, both targeted by the Securities and Exchange Commission on trumped-up charges. In Mr. Xia’s case, which is still ongoing, the SEC withheld pertinent information from the court. In the DEBT Box case, a federal judge reprimanded the SEC in writing for making materially false and misleading claims when requesting an emergency ex parte asset freeze.
In that same article, I also detailed the case of another person targeted by the SEC on false charges and imprisoned by the Justice Department. Facing the prospect of 20 years behind bars, he agreed under pressure to settle the case, only to be informed after the fact that a forensic audit had exonerated him.
This behavior from federal agencies erodes the rule of law, ruins innocent lives and hurts all of us. It’s hard not to notice that so many victims of this kind of government malfeasance are successful individuals and entities with a lot of money in their bank accounts. This money could have gone into the American economy but instead ended up in the government’s coffers.
Federal law enforcement agencies should uphold the law, not use it as a cudgel to coerce and compel innocent people. Suppose the Trump administration wishes to restore Americans’ faith in our legal system. In that case, it must seriously examine how federal agencies are time and again able to act so unethically and possibly illegally with such impunity.
• Bernard Kerik served as the 40th commissioner of the New York Police Department.