Donald Trump has literally declared that Kamala Harris should be prosecuted for her border policies, that Liz Cheney should be tried by military tribunal, and that “Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors” should receive “long term prison sentences” for the 2020 election—but according to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, the former and incoming president will not use the law to go after his political opponents.
Appearing on State of the Union on Sunday, the Ohio representative told Dana Bash, with a straight face, that Trump will not prosecute his perceived enemies in a second term because he didn’t do so in his first, despite numerous campaign threats. Trump “talked about ‘Lock her up’ when he was talking about his opponent in 2016, Secretary Clinton” but he “didn’t do that,” Jordan explained. After Bash noted that that was then, and more recently, Trump has threatened numerous opponents with prosecution, Jordan responded: “I don’t think any of that’s going to happen because we’re the party who’s against political prosecution. We’re the party who’s against going after your opponents using law fare.”
Jordan did not give a straight answer when asked if Trump‘s threats were simply “campaign rhetoric,” but shifted the focus to how Democrats have supposedly “gone after their opponents using law fare,” telling Bash: “We all know the Fani Willis case, the Alvin Bragg case, and the Jack Smith cases were all driven by politics. The American people understood it. That’s why that they had this overwhelming win, one of the reasons of this overwhelming win for President Trump. So I’m against the retribution.”
While Trump may not have gotten the government to actually bring charges against his opponents in a first term, it wasn’t for lack of trying. In fact, he repeatedly tried to get his attorneys general to investigate Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, and other Democrats but was refused. Meanwhile, investigations into other people who crossed him were launched, including ones into former FBI officials Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok.
On Friday, Jordan and GOP representative Barry Loudermilk sent a letter to special counsel Jack Smith—who Trump has said should be thrown out of the country—demanding that Smith’s office preserve any and all records concerning prosecutions against Trump. (Smith, who is said to be winding down his Trump cases, oversaw the indictments against the ex-president for mishandling classified documents and trying to overturn the 2020 election.) Asked by Bash if he would ask Smith to testify before Congress, Jordan responded: “We’ll have to see.”
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