The hammer of justice is coming.
Officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are hiring themselves criminal defense attorneys in anticipation of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
According to a report from NBC News, senior members of both government agencies are panicking about the prospect of Trump and his prospective attorney general, former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz.
The report states:
“Everything we did was aboveboard,” said a former senior FBI official who has started contacting lawyers because he expects to be prosecuted himself. “But this is a different world.”
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of becoming even more of a target, doesn’t believe any attempt to prosecute him will be successful. Judges and juries have the power to throw out cases or find defendants innocent if they deem prosecutions to be baseless.
But like many other current and former Justice Department officials, he is bracing for a potentially long and costly legal battle, as well as the possibility of protracted congressional investigations, after Trump takes office in January.
Another satisfying aspect of the report are claims that that DOJ officials “wept” after the election, while Attorney General Merrick Garland was left “shocked” by the result:
Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, were shocked by Trump’s decisive election win.
For the last four years, Garland has argued that strictly following post-Watergate norms that require the Justice Department to work in a nonpartisan manner in criminal investigations would restore public trust in the Justice Department.
Instead, some career Justice Department officials wept after the election, dismayed by the fact that large numbers of Americans apparently continue to believe Trump’s claims that the department is a cesspool of corruption.
While Trump nor Gaetz have never specified exactly what charges could be brought against certain individuals, any prosecutions would likely relate to their efforts to imprison the former president and his most loyal supporters.
Mike Davis, a conservative lawyer and advisor to president, recently argued that special counsel Jack Smith, who led the efforts to prosecute and imprison Trump for challenging the fraudulent results of the 2020 presidential election, should “lawyer up.”
Dear Jack Smith:
Lawyer up.
— Mike Davis (@mrddmia) November 6, 2024
In a recent interview on Newsmax, Davis added that Smith “should go to prison for engaging in a criminal conspiracy against President Trump.”
Mark Paoletta, another lawyer and Trump ally, said back in July that Trump has a responsibility to hold those engaged in corruption accountable for their crimes.
“No president should ever use the awesome prosecutorial powers of the United States government to pursue someone simply because they are a political opponent or for personal vendetta reasons,” he wrote at the time.
“President Trump would never do that. That’s not to say that being a political adversary of a President gives you protection from prosecution if you do in fact violate the law. Whether friend or foe, no one is above the law.”
CNN reporter is wrong both constitutionally & historically. She claims DOJ “technically has operated historically as an independent entity.” Constitution vests our ELECTED President with ALL executive power, including DOJ. He has the duty to supervise DOJ, including, if… pic.twitter.com/amoMdDFtP5
— Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) November 7, 2024