A conviction may be beside the point for the Justice Department as it pursues case against Comey

WASHINGTON (AP) — For a Justice Department facing intense White House pressure to investigate perceived presidential enemies, indicting former FBI Director James Comey was the easy part.

Building a case that can sway a jury beyond a reasonable doubt is a significantly tougher task, but like in other cases of investigations of President Donald Trump’s critics, it increasingly seems to be almost beside the point.

As the administration aims to comply with Trump’s ordered prosecutions, officials have signaled that making life uncomfortable for targets of the retribution — including through reputational harm, legal fees and lingering uncertainty — is a desired goal in its own right, separate and apart from the ability to secure a guilty verdict. It’s a sharp break for a department that for de