Trump floats and jails his opponents and Hillary if he wins in 2024, while MAGA plots retaliation for guilty verdicts with hush money
Former President Donald Trump is once again brandishing the threat of retaliation against his political enemies — with a growing list that could include the Manhattan district attorney who secured a 34-count conviction.
Also back on Trump’s radar years after the first “lock her up” chants at Trump rallies: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
After coming to power in 2016 by promising to go after Clinton and his rivals, Trump has turned his ire on prosecutors and judges who accuse his allies in Congress of pursuing “justice politics” against him.
“So you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us down, and it’s very possible that it’s going to happen to them,” Trump said. Newsmax while still an angry interview in the aftermath of the Manhattan jury verdict.
“Does this mean the next president will do it to them? That’s really the question,” Trump said, inserting a degree of ambiguity.
It came in a wild interview in which he said there was a “cabal” of judges against him, naming Judge Arthur Engoron and Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over his fraud in New York and the trials of Stormy Daniels.
Former President Donald Trump raged in a new interview about the “lawsuit” he and his allies say is being leveled against him, suggesting prosecutors and political rivals could face prosecution themselves
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has his own targets in mind, including Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who also prosecuted him and faced charges of money laundering and conspiracy charges for his “We Build the Wall’ plan.
“Of course (Bragg) should be jailed — and will be,” Bannon told Axios. He cited the Constitution’s equal protection and the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.
“Plus dozens of other laws,” Bannon said.
Trump also made a veiled threat to prosecute Clinton, his 2016 election rival, in language that began by describing how wrong it would be to go after a former first lady.
“Wouldn’t it be terrible to fire the president’s wife as a former secretary of state? Just think: the former secretary of state has put the president’s wife in jail. Wouldn’t that be terrible,” he told Newsmax.
Making a list: Former President Donald Trump said it would be ‘terrible’ to ‘put the president’s wife in jail’
Trump’s 2016 rallies repeatedly called for her to be ‘locked up’
Trump and his allies have also identified Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg as a legal target
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan wants to quash investigation into special counsel Jack Smith, who filed charges and classified documents against Trump on January 6
‘It’s a terrible, terrible path they’re leading us to. And it’s entirely possible that it will have to happen to them.
Trump showed some regret for going after Clinton while in office, even after a term in which he cycled through attorneys general and was accused of politicizing the agency.
‘I could have done it. But I felt that it would have been something terrible. And then this happened to me. And so I might feel differently about it,” he told Fox & Friends Weekend, also addressing a potential threat — and suggesting that such a prosecution lead could come from him personally.
It comes after he railed about the Stormy Daniels trial in a post-conviction press statement, claiming it was orchestrated by President Joe Biden. AG Merrick Garland disputed that charges were filed by local authorities who obtained a grand jury indictment.
Trump’s speech on retaliation receives support from Republicans in Congress.
“President Biden should just be ready because come January 20th of next year, when he’s former President Joe Biden, what’s good for the goose is good for the goose,” Texas GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson told Newsmax .
“I’m going to encourage all of my colleagues and anyone I have any influence over as a member of Congress to aggressively go after the president and his entire family, his entire crime family, for all the wrongdoing that’s happening right now. related to this family.’
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan has a plan to use the appropriations process to focus on “lawsuits.”
His latest proposal is a 2025 budget program with legislative language “to eliminate federal funding for prosecutors or attorneys general engaged in the practice of law and to zero out federal funding for federal prosecutors who engage in such abuse.” , Fox News reported.
Prison is not enough punishment for some Trump allies. “Not just prison, they should get the death penalty,” said far-right media personality and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer in a podcast interview highlighted by the New York Times.