There is no longer any doubt as to whether Donald Trump would seek prosecution against his perceived political enemies. Not only does he continue to publicly acknowledge his intentions – including in a new interview aired late yesterday – he is followed by an account that he has already made such attempts.
The question is rather who he would go to first. There is reason to believe that members of the January 6 committee would be high on the former president’s list.
To judge of the United States District Court Carl J. Nichols When former White House strategist Steve Bannon was ordered to report to prison on July 1, Trump found it difficult to lash out at the justice system. After all, he’s the one who appointed Nichols to the federal bench.
So the Republican did the next best thing: As NBC News reported, he lashed out at the members whose subpoenas Bannon ignored.
Given the relevant details, “proposed” is actually a generous description.
“It is a total and complete American tragedy that the Crooked Joe Biden Department of Injustice is so desperate to jail Steve Bannon, and all other Republicans for that matter, for not submitting to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, made up of all Democrats . and two CRAZY FORMER REPUBLICAN CRAZIES, Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger and Liz “Out of Her Mind” Cheney,” the presumptive GOP nominee wrote on his social media platform.
The same hysterical screed added: “It has been proven beyond doubt that it was the Unselects who committed actual crimes when they removed and destroyed all material evidence, in a pathetic attempt to protect crazy Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats from the TRUTH – THAT I ABSOLUTELY DID IT. NOTHING WRONG. The un-American weaponization of our law enforcement has reached a level of illegality never previously thought possible.”
Trump concluded: “DECLARES THE UNSELECTED J6 COMMITTEE FOR ILLEGALLY REMOVING AND DESTROYING ALL THEIR ‘FINDINGS!’”
There’s clearly no point in fact-checking every individual error in the facts and judgment from the former president’s speech, but it’s probably worth taking a moment to consider a few key elements.
First, the idea that the January 6 commission illegally destroyed evidence is ridiculous.
Second, there was a certain irony in Trump condemning the “weaponization” of law enforcement and seeking criminal charges against his critics in successive sentences.
But even putting these pertinent details aside, the broader takeaway from the presumptive GOP’s online tirade is that he seems quite serious about wanting to prosecute the bipartisan group of lawmakers who investigated the January 6 attack. In fact, yesterday wasn’t even the first such tirade: It was last summer when Trump began accusing members of the former House of Representatives select panel of being “criminals” guilty of “highly illegal” misconduct. He kept the offensive going for months, paying particular attention to former Rep. Liz Cheney.
“SHE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT SHE DID TO OUR COUNTRY!” he wrote a few months ago, referring to the former Wyoming congressman. Trump added at the time: “She should go to jail with the rest of the Unselect Committee!”
Sure, the members of the Jan. 6 committee have a lot of company — I long ago lost count of the number of people Trump has falsely accused of crimes — but that doesn’t change the troubling circumstances: the former president is at the same time he spoke about prosecuting his domestic enemies and demanding charges against those who investigated the January 6 attack.
This message updates our related previous reporting.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
