How Trump can go after enemies at home | Editorial

Americans elected a president who vowed to use the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies: It’s time to take stock of this strange new world we suddenly find ourselves in. How exactly could he go after his enemies?

He could start by appointing as Attorney General someone like Mike Davis, the Republican attorney whose name has repeatedly been mentioned as a possible candidate and who has made his vindictive intentions clear.

On November 6, immediately after Trump surpasses 270 delegate votes it was necessary to win presidentialdavis he tweeted this On Democrats: “My current mood is this: I want to drag their dead political bodies through the streets, burn them and throw them over the wall.”

And Trump has just been given the authority to break the law. The Supreme Court this summer granted the president broad immunity from criminal prosecution for “official acts,” specifically citing his control of the Justice Department as a prime example.

“It’s a good bet they’re going to push this decision to its limits,” a former federal prosecutor told us last week.

Defendants often complain that they are being tried for political reasons, but Trump has made clear promises to do so, and the immunity ruling removes all restrictions.

“What you’re concerned about is something as broad as him charging people with sedition for being disloyal to the country and attacking him,” said Lawrence Lustberg, a prominent criminal defense attorney. Imagine if Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate and indict Liz Cheney and other outspoken critics like Chris Christie for criticizing them on television.

There are protections against such unfair prosecutions. Some prosecutors will refuse on principle. Good judges dismiss bad cases. But even initiating investigations into political enemies will subject them to penalties, waste time, and force them to spend money on lawyers or find someone to work for free. Even trivial cases can drag on and make people’s lives miserable.

Trump could also tell the Justice Department or another federal agency to investigate his enemies or perhaps audit his taxes, as Richard Nixon tried to do.

“Federal crimes are pretty wide-ranging, and if they look hard enough they can usually find something,” the former federal prosecutor told us. “The potential for abuse is why the Justice Department’s long-standing policy emphasizes that you should investigate and prosecute conduct, not people.”

But with the right AG and immunity ruling, Trump can indulge his worst impulses to trample it. “They lied on the lease application or who knows,” Lustberg said. “Juries aren’t that forgiving, and that might be why.”

Trump’s threats can, of course, be bluster, like his promise to build a wall and force Mexico to pay for it. But don’t count on it. This time he plans to appoint loyal people, so he will avoid restraint.

This clear danger will be a new stress test for our democracy. Attorneys general from both parties have frequently opposed the president in the past; conservative John Ashcroft refused to reauthorize the warrantless surveillance that continued under the Bush administration after 9/11. Some are now promising to do the same.

“Respect for the legal system and the rule of law is part of the foundations of this country and our state. “If President-elect Trump uses his position to unlawfully attack the rights of New Jersey residents, we will see him in court,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said.

Principled lawyers will be willing to take on these cases pro bono, and organizations will come together to file amicus briefs on the threat this presents to our democracy. It’s up to patriots to step back. And the Constitution will help.

“What makes this country great is that we disagree and have First Amendment protection,” Lustberg said. “In fact, I believe even this Supreme Court will support this.”

But Trump is also likely to appoint hard-line conservative judges who could weaken the resistance. And if it gets the Justice Department to go after just one enemy, it could be a wake-up call for everyone.

The danger doesn’t just concern high-profile critics like Cheney or Christie. Amol Sinha, president of the ACLU of New Jersey, states that Trump may also go after political activists and the press. We’ve already seen him intimidate two major newspapers (The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times), whose billionaire owners have blocked the publication of editorials supporting Kamala Harris.

Protesters can also be targets. Trump said of college students protesting the war in Gaza in the spring: “One of the things I’m doing is kicking every student out of the country who’s protesting” — and he might use violence against them, too.

He has vowed to revoke federally issued licenses of media publishers who offend him. If people fear prosecution just for doing something the new regime does not accept, this betrays American traditions and chills political discourse and civil service.

That’s why the ACLU has been “scenario planning” for the past several months to identify perceived threats and will look for opportunities to turn New Jersey into “a firewall for freedom” with more policies to protect civil liberties, Sinha said.

In the early days of the first Trump administration, the ACLU received record-breaking donations and more than doubled its size nationwide by hiring a fleet of new lawyers; More than 434 legal challenges have been filed against the Trump administration. “People saw us as the front lines of freedom,” Sinha said.

On Wednesday, he spent the day on the phone with supporters and donors, warning that a second Trump administration could be worse than the first. Other groups are also preparing. This will require the entire legal sector to step back and insist on protecting democratic values.

The opposition is currently in a period of grief and may feel less excited and more tired than in 2016. But the risks are too high to simply ignore. Trump’s governing philosophy will be about promises made, promises kept, and let’s hope for America’s sake that isn’t true.

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