Former President Donald Trump’s continued threats to prosecute his perceived enemies — most recently last weekend — have many legal and democracy experts concerned, who say Trump’s own history shows he can run for second term. The presidency has fulfilled these promises.
On Saturday, the Republican presidential candidate alleged on social media that there was “massive fraud and slander” in the 2020 presidential election, despite multiple recounts and audits disproving his claims. That he only lost because of voter fraud. Trump then brought up the baseless claims of fraud in the 2024 election, saying that various groups — including lawyers and “corrupt election officials” — should be aware that after winning the 2024 election, “the people who cheat will be prosecuted.” did.”
The threat comes just weeks after Trump released factual social media posts calling for military courts against former President Barack Obama and accusing a House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. . He shared another user’s post with his followers showing his rivals in jumpsuits, including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Richard Pinter, who was White House ethics counsel for President George W. Bush, compared the comments to President Vladimir Putin’s view of Russia, where Putin’s political opponents face charges of “extremism” or “treason.” Black goes to jail. His diet.
“It’s very dangerous for democracy, the idea that the winners just put the losers in jail, prosecute the losers.” Pantier told USA TODAY.
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Carolyn Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, told USA TODAY in an email that Trump believes anyone who breaks the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including criminals who commit election fraud. does
“Without free and fair elections, you can’t have a country. Just ask Venezuela,” Levitt said.
The former president has previously suggested that the prosecution of his rivals would be legal retribution for his own legal troubles, which include a felony conviction in New York state court and three other criminal cases.
Pinter said the argument ignores some stark differences between Trump’s own situation and what he threatens.
“Joe Biden never campaigned on a promise to incarcerate Donald Trump,” Punter said. “When Donald Trump engaged in the behavior that he did, an independent prosecutor was appointed,” he added, referring to special counsel Jack Smith, who has significant independence from Justice Department leadership and Two federal cases have received grand jury indictments, one of them. Trump has illegally tried to disrupt the 2020 election and another has accused him of falsifying classified documents.
Trump has tried to prosecute his rivals before
Robert Gordon, a Stanford law professor, said that although Trump has been “retaliated against and insulted,” there is good reason to believe that when he says he will use the legal system to retaliate. The Guardian noted that Trump tried to have the FBI and Justice Department investigate and prosecute rivals during his first term. It broke with post-Watergate norms to keep law enforcement investigations independent from the White House.
For example, according to Mueller’s report, Trump’s first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, told federal prosecutors that Trump had asked him to withdraw his decision to recuse himself from the presidential campaign investigation and instruct the Justice Department. to investigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton around the summer. Year 2017.
In the spring of 2018, Trump also told White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II that he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute both Hillary Clinton and James Comey, the former FBI director whom Trump previously accused of Russian interference. He was dismissed during the investigation. According to the New York Times, Trump in the 2016 US presidential election. McGahn wrote a memo to White House lawmakers warning Trump that if he ordered law enforcement to investigate his rivals, he would face impeachment.
Following the release of Mueller’s report in March 2019, which looked into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump also called on federal officials to “investigate the investigators.” Another time, after Sessions was Trump’s pick for attorney general, he later appointed special counsel John Durham to the job.
“He has made clear his position that, as head of the executive branch, he has the authority and right to direct the administration of federal criminal justice to any purpose he chooses; and that the Attorney General and the United States Attorney Prosecutors do not respect ‘independence,'” Gordon told USA TODAY in an email.
Why Trump could win next time
Amanda Carpenter, a former staffer for Republican Sens. Jim Dement and Ted Cruz, who now works for Protecting Democracy, a nonpartisan nonprofit, told USA TODAY that it would be easy for Trump to follow through with an impeachment inquiry. Shi – even without strong evidence. – Because the power of the president will be weak.
“The trial he threatens against those who challenge his authority is based on lies, conspiracy and lies, and so when he goes to court for the 2020 election as a result of these elections, His claims have been denied and denied again,” she said, referring to Trump’s more than 60 failed election-related lawsuits.
Other:Reality check: Donald Trump received dozens of listeners on his 2020 election claims
Carpenter cited plans by Trump allies to erode the Justice Department’s independence with the Supreme Court’s July 1 impeachment ruling and the shrinking number of congressional Republicans who support Trump’s Jan. 6 impeachment. .
“Trump and his allies spent his time out of office planning to systematically dismantle the checks and balances that prevented him from breaking too many laws in his first term,” Carpenter said.
Defending Trump’s Call to Sue Rivals
At least one prominent law professor has come out in support of using the justice system to retaliate, saying Trump should not have been charged with crimes and that retaliatory prosecution is the solution.
University of California, Berkeley law professor John Yu, a former Justice Department attorney and prominent conservative, argued in the National Review in May that the impeachment against Trump threatens the ability of future presidents to deal with emergencies. Act because they will fear being judged for their behavior. Those responsible for Trump’s criminal cases will only learn their lesson, one said, if Trump’s rivals are also prosecuted.
“Without the threat of impeachment of their leaders, Democrats will continue to impeach future Republican presidents without tolerance,” Yow wrote.
In an email to USA Today, Yu said he did not take Trump’s posts seriously. Regarding the post about military courts for Obama, he said that such courts do not have the power to try American officials. Photos of Democrats in jail seem “a joke” to him.
He wrote: “What I argued in my article, and I continue to believe, is that Democratic district attorneys should charge Trump and his campaign officials with state criminal charges for their conduct in the federal election. He is being prosecuted under the charges.” “If Democrats continue to interfere with federal candidates like Trump and their campaigns anyway, they open the door for Republican DAs to do the same.”
Ilya Sumin, a law professor at George Mason University, argued that Trump should appoint prosecutors against his rivals as retaliation — that “what’s good for the goose is good for the gender,” as That being said – it ignores the question of who actually committed the crime. A great crime.
“If marijuana has committed a serious crime, he deserves prison, and if marijuana hasn’t, he doesn’t,” he told USA TODAY. “Trump committed serious crimes by attempting to overturn the 2020 election by force and fraud.”
What crime does Trump claim of his rivals?
Trump and the memes he reposted didn’t specify what crimes his nemesis allegedly committed, except in a Jan. 6 committee case he accused of “conquering.”
“Terrorist conspiracy” is a federal crime, which includes conspiring to attack or harm the United States government through a variety of possible means, such as attempting to overthrow it or waging war against it. Trump has not clarified how he believes the committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol under House investigative powers committed the crime.
When it comes to Trump-ordered prosecutions, Somin doesn’t expect courts or juries to accept criminal charges based solely on someone who has opposed Trump on an issue, but said even an investigation or indictment would be There is a significant burden on those targeted.
However, given how much behavior is covered by federal law, if the Justice Department really wanted to charge someone with a crime, there’s a good chance it could find one for almost every adult, Somin said. added For example, he cited evidence that half of American adults have tried marijuana, even though possession of marijuana is a federal crime.
“It’s a common tool of various authoritarian regimes. I’m not saying that Trump can get us all there immediately or quickly, but it’s possible that he will take a step in that direction if he has the chance.” he said.
Personnel policy?
During Trump’s first term, Republican establishment appointees slowed or blocked some of Trump’s efforts to test or break legal boundaries.
Bill Barr, for example, told CNN’s Caitlan Collins in an April interview that Trump would “lose his temper” and say that the people he was angry with should be executed. “At the end of the day it’s not going to get done and you can have a gut conversation with him,” Barr said.
Vice President Mike Pence resisted Trump’s weeks-long campaign to have him roll back the results of the 2020 election during Pence’s primary role in counting electoral votes.
Trump’s advisers and former aides have said he will prioritize personal loyalty and commitment to his agenda in appointing appointees to his next administration.
One such person has already been chosen: Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who, unlike Pence, will not certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
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