The Washington Post is sounding the alarm that Republican party frontrunner Donald J. Trump will sic the Justice Department on his foes, another sign that the establishment is preparing for a Joe Biden loss.
“Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations,” wrote Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, and Devlin Barrett.
What’s most striking about the list of people Trump privately talks about prosecuting is how much they are his own former people – Ty Cobb, Barr, Kelly, and Milley… (click pic for story: Trump and allies plot revenge and control of the Justice Dept) https://t.co/8ceXUGYJER
— Devlin Barrett (@DevlinBarrett) November 5, 2023
According to the WaPo report, Trump plans to target his own former hires who turned against him and have been celebrated by the media for doing so.
Sticking with their common practice, the reporters cited the usual anonymous sources, “In private, Trump has told advisers and friends in recent months that he wants the Justice Department to investigate onetime officials and allies who have become critical of his time in office, including his former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and former attorney general William P. Barr, as well as his ex-attorney Ty Cobb and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley.”
Other than the now-retired Milley, who declined to comment, the other three alleged targets reacted to the WaPo’s report.
“There is no question in my mind he is going to go after people that have turned on him,” Kelly said.
“I’m quivering in my boots,” said Barr.
“Trump himself is more likely to rot in jail than anyone on his alleged list,” Cobb told the outlet.
The story is notable because the once-venerable newspaper has cheered the weaponization of the DOJ and FBI by Biden and rabidly partisan Attorney General Merrick Garland despite the precedent that has been set while ignoring the possibility that the political winds might one day shift against Democrats.
“To facilitate Trump’s ability to direct Justice Department actions, his associates have been drafting plans to dispense with 50 years of policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations,” the report states. “Critics have called such ideas dangerous and unconstitutional.”
The WaPo quotes University of Virginia constitutional law professor Saikrishna Prakash who studies executive power.
“It would resemble a banana republic if people came into office and started going after their opponents willy-nilly,” Prakash said. “It’s hardly something we should aspire to.”
It wasn’t disclosed whether the critics made similar protestations over the unprecedented degree to which the Biden regime and its allies have dispensed with longstanding legal norms to wield the judicial system as a bludgeon against the former president and his associates.
Trump has vowed that if voters return him to the White House he would appoint a “real” special prosecutor to go after Biden and his crooked clan.
“I WILL APPOINT A REAL SPECIAL “PROSECUTOR” TO GO AFTER THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, JOE BIDEN, THE ENTIRE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, & ALL OTHERS INVOLVED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ELECTIONS, BORDERS, & COUNTRY ITSELF!” Trump wrote in a June Truth Social post.
(Screenshot: Truth Social)
“President Trump is focused on crushing his opponents in the primary election and then going on to beat Crooked Joe Biden. President Trump has always stood for law and order, and protecting the Constitution,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement to the Washington Post.
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