“Defeat the Communists”
Trump's allies launch legal vendetta
Donald Trump has been convicted as a criminal, and now the Democrats must pay for it. This is how his allies' cries of revenge sound. Trump himself has long spoken of his intention to investigate US President Biden and his family after an election victory.
There are only five months left until the US presidential election, and since the end of May, the designated candidate Donald Trump has been a convicted criminal. 34 charges. 34 times guilty. Republicans allied with Trump are seeking revenge. In addition to party politicians who could be rewarded with positions and influence for their loyalty after a possible election victory against US President Joe Biden, old acquaintances from Trump's circle are also speaking out. Everything is on the attack, they demand.
Stephen Miller, an advisor to Trump, called on US television for action to be taken against the Democrats. “Is every Republican district attorney now pushing for every necessary investigation?” he asked. “Is every Republican-controlled committee using its subpoena power as it should?” Miller called for a radical election campaign. “Every facet of the Republican Party's politics and power must now be used to get on par with Marxism and defeat the communists,” he thundered.
Former presidential whisperer and right-wing puppet master Steve Bannon also spoke out. Republican prosecutors across the country have their chance, they can step into the spotlight and take targeted action against Democrats. There are “dozens of such backbenchers” who can seize their opportunity and “seize the moment of history,” he is quoted as saying in the New York Times.
Senator Marco Rubio of the state of Florida wrote that President Biden is “a demented man propped up by evil and deranged people.” It is time to “fight fire with fire.” Rubio is a possible running mate for presidential candidate-elect Trump. The rhetoric is undoubtedly appropriate. Many others have made similar statements since the verdict, defaming the court or the trial and declaring Trump innocent in one fell swoop.
Simple thesis, simple logic
In front of the courthouse in Manhattan, they had previously passed the microphones around for weeks and ranted passionately about the “sham trial”, the allegedly corrupt judiciary and prosecutors, the judge and their conspiracy with the government of the Democrat and US President Joe Biden. It was the perfect preparation for any outcome of the trial. Now they are simply going ahead and demanding revenge. If the jury had not convicted the Republican, the Republicans could have said: The jurors saw through the prosecution's lies!
The theory of Trump and his allies: The White House is using the justice system as a weapon for its concerted political action. Their logic: We are now simply doing the same thing to the Democrats. In this conspiracy theory, Biden is responsible for the four different charges in four different places: in addition to the hush money in New York, these are the trials for the secret documents in his residence in Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the insurrection on January 6, 2021 in the capital Washington, and the election manipulation in the state of Georgia. In all likelihood, none of these will begin before the election in November.
If Trump wins the election, he will be able to order federal investigations into individuals. He would also appoint the Attorney General, who is also the chief prosecutor. Although the department is often glorified as being effectively independent, the Republican often doesn't care about unwritten rules. “I will appoint a special investigator to pursue the most corrupt president in US history and his criminal family,” Trump announced a year ago, shortly after the indictment was read out in Miami for his illegal storage of secret documents. The US justice system had opened Pandora's box with its charges against him, he raged at the time.
The Republicans now also have support from the notorious Berkeley law professor John Yoo, who declared the torture of prisoners legal under George W. Bush. “Only retaliation can create the necessary deterrence,” he wrote in an essay. “Without the threat of criminal prosecution, the Democrats will continue to impeach future Republican presidents without restraint.” The Republicans must forestall this and prosecute the Democrats themselves. Trump himself said after his conviction that it was “very possible” that Democrats would end up in prison after an election victory.
Ministry of Justice as a law firm
Anyone who didn't do what he was told during his first term was fired. In a second term, he could do the same in the Justice Department. Before and during his first presidency, Trump openly called for his opponents to be put in prison. “Lock her up!” was a common demand at his campaign rallies, referring to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate. After his election victory, he repeatedly called for the Justice Department to investigate. If he were successful again, he could use the department as if it were his personal law firm.
Trump's Attorney General William Barr did investigate but never filed charges; perhaps simply because there was insufficient evidence. For example, Barr appointed a special investigator to investigate the FBI because Trump suspected a conspiracy against him. The president had urged Barr to do so because the FBI had investigated possible illegal cooperation between his campaign team and Russian intelligence after the 2016 election. Barr broke with the president in the aftermath of the 2020 election – when he was sure that Trump had lost.
For four weeks, Trump railed against the result from the White House and spread his theory of election fraud. Barr made his statement on December 1. The US Department of Justice had found no evidence of fraud that could change the election result. Trump's claims were therefore baseless. “It was all nonsense,” said Barr. Since then, the ground has been burned between the two.
