Supporters of Trump push for legal retaliation.
Donald Trump has been convicted of a crime, and now his supporters are calling for payback against the Democrats. Trump himself has threatened to investigate Joe Biden and his family if he wins the upcoming presidential election.
With less than five months until the US presidential election, Trump has been hit with 34 charges, making him a convicted criminal. His allies are now seeking revenge, both from within the Republican party and from outside supporters.
Stephen Miller, a Trump adviser, has urged Republicans to go after the Democrats. "Will all Republican district attorneys now conduct any necessary investigations?" he asked on TV. "Will all Republican-controlled committees use their subpoena power as they should?" Miller called for a radical election campaign. "Every aspect of politics and power of the Republican Party must now be used to fight socialism head-on and defeat the communists," he declared.
Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser and right-wing agitator, also weighed in. He suggested that Republican prosecutors across the country have a chance to take center stage and specifically target Democrats. "There are dozens of such traitors," he said, referring to potential targets.
Senator Marco Rubio, a possible vice presidential candidate for Trump, attacked Biden as a "senile man who is supported by evil and mentally ill people." "It's time to fight fire with fire," Rubio said. Many others have echoed these sentiments, vilifying the court system, the process, and the government, all in the hopes of making Trump's conviction look like a miscarriage of justice.
Outside the courthouse in Manhattan, Trump's allies have been stirring up outrage against the "sham trial," the supposedly corrupt justice system and prosecution, the judge, and a conspiracy with the Biden administration. They've used this rhetoric to prepare for any potential outcome of the trial. Now they're simply continuing to call for revenge. If the jury hadn't convicted Trump, they would have claimed that the jurors saw through the lies of the prosecution.
Trump and his allies believe that the Justice Department is being used as a weapon by the Democrats. In their view, the Biden administration is involved in a conspiracy against Trump. The four different charges Trump's supporters point to are the hush money in New York, the classified documents in Biden's residence in Florida, the January 6th uprising in Washington, D.C., and the alleged electoral manipulation in Georgia. It's unlikely that any of these cases will start before November's election.
If Trump wins the election, he can order investigations against individuals. He would also appoint a Justice Minister who is also the chief prosecutor. Although the department is often declared independent, the Republicans may not care about unwritten rules. "I will appoint a special prosecutor to pursue the most corrupt president in US history and his criminal family," Trump announced a year ago. The US Justice Department has opened the door to allowing Trump to use it as his own personal law firm.
In his first term, Trump demanded that his opponents be imprisoned. His supporters will have noticed his tactics. In a second term, Trump could treat the Justice Department as if it were his personal law firm. During his first presidency, Trump openly pressured the Justice Department to investigate his opponents. William Barr, his Justice Minister at the time, did investigate, but never prosecuted due to a lack of evidence. Barr eventual broke with Trump after the 2020 election, when Trump lost.
For four weeks, Trump raged against the court's decision and spread his election fraud conspiracy theory. Barr spoke out on December 1st, stating that the Justice Department found no evidence of fraud that could change the election outcome. "It was all nonsense," Barr said. Since then, there's been a bitter feud between Trump and Barr.
Read also:
Trump has mentioned investigating Joe Biden and his family if he were to win the US presidential election 2024, echoing the calls for payback from his supporters following his conviction. Stormy Daniels, a woman who had an affair with Trump and was paid hush money, could potentially become a target of these investigations if Trump returns to power.
