MOSINEE, Wis. — Former President Donald Trump, who has frequently falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through widespread fraud, warned Saturday that he will seek to lock up anyone who engages in “unconscionable behavior” in the outcome of the 2024 election.
The threat was made in a post on Truth Social, his social media website, and he repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. He accused Democrats of “widespread deception and villainy.”
“The 2024 elections, where the votes have just been cast, will be under the most careful professional supervision and, IF I WIN, those who CHEATED will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, which will include long prison sentences, so that this perversion of justice cannot happen again,” he wrote.
He continued: “Be aware that this legal exposure extends to lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters and corrupt election officials. Those involved in unscrupulous conduct will be tracked down, caught and prosecuted at a level that has unfortunately never been seen before in our country.”
The threat was one of the most far-reaching he has made during his presidential campaign following his 2020 defeat. He went beyond threatening old enemies and issuing warnings to those involved in the current election.
Although he spent much of the 2016 campaign threatening to jail his opponent Hillary Clinton, he generally avoids targeting people outside of politics, such as donors and election workers.
Election workers across the country have been the victims of threats, most notably Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, whose lives were turned upside down when Trump and his allies accused them of false fraud after the 2020 election.
In the run-up to the 2020 election, Trump began making unsubstantiated warnings about election interference. These grew louder after he lost, culminating in a mob attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to block the certification of Biden’s election. He has continued to make similar statements in the run-up to the 2024 election.
He also stressed during a speech Saturday in Wisconsin that the GOP is focused on election integrity this time around, saying that if Republicans can stop Democrats from cheating, he won’t have to continue his campaign.
“We’ve got to stop cheating. If we stop cheating, if we don’t let them cheat, I won’t even have to campaign anymore,” Trump said. “We’re going to win by a huge margin. In the meantime, too big to manipulate, too big to manipulate.”
Trump and his allies filed dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits after the 2020 election in an attempt to overturn the results. Some Democrats say the new legal battles by Republicans in swing states ahead of the November election raise concerns that Republicans are trying to sow doubt about the outcome if Donald Trump loses.
A Trump campaign spokesman was not immediately available Saturday evening to provide further information about Trump’s plan.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
