Speaking in an interview with Spanish-language news outlet Univision in November of 2023 about how he will deal with the “radical” DAs and prosecutors who have come after him with indictments and civil cases in the run-up to the 2024 election, former President Donald Trump indicated that he’d exact some degree of retribution.
At the time he made those comments, Trump faced a whopping 91 charges, ranging from the claims from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney Letitia James that he lied on business documents and his tax forms to the RICO charges brought by DA Fani Willis and handling of classified information charges brought by Jack Smith.
Speaking about those charges and his claim that the DOJ and FBI have been “weaponized” against him, Trump said that the banana republic tactics are not unique to the world but are unique to the United States. In his words: “It’s not unique but it’s unique for the United States. Yeah, if they do this — and they’ve already done it — but if they want to follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse.”
Continuing, he said that the tactics look political and like they are meant to keep him down in the polls as he rises against President Joe Biden, saying, “If I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say ‘go down and indict them’ — mostly, they would be out of business, they’d be out of the election.”
Indicating what he might do to go after those who have brought these charges against him, Trump said that it is possible that it could happen “in reverse” to those who have been coming after him. He said, “If they do this, and they’ve already done it, but if they follow through on this, it could certainly happen in reverse. It could certainly happen in reverse.”
He then emphasized that, now that they have come after him in this manner, the “genie” is “out of the box” on the matter of bringing charges against political opponents. Making that point, he said, “What they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box. You understand that, they’ve done something that nobody thought would happen.”
More directly saying that he thinks the indictments were brought for political reasons elsewhere in the interview, Trump said that there had been a serious “weaponization” of the justice system against him, telling Univision, “They’ve done indictments to win an election. They call it weaponization, and the people aren’t going to stand for it.”
Then, commenting on how he could theoretically use the justice system for the same ends if reelected, he said, “If I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ Mostly what that would be, you know, they would be out of business. They’d be out, they’d be out of the election.”
Watch Trump talk about the weaponization of the DOJ and FBI later, in a statement to the media, here:
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