A single hour on Sunday morning might have delivered the most thoroughly depressing political news of 2023 for those dreading another Donald Trump presidency.
At 5 a.m. came President Biden’s worst 2024 numbers yet: a New York Times-Siena College poll showing Trump leading in five of six key swing states. At 6 a.m. came a reminder about what that could portend: a Washington Post exposé about how Trump and his allies plan to use a second term to wrest control of and politicize the Justice Department to target his political foes.
The Post’s big story was hardly the first evidence of the plans for a consolidation of power and a more authoritarian second term.
Below is a recap of what we know, based on reports like The Post’s — as well as the words of both Trump and his allies.
Use the Justice Department for political purposes
Trump has made no secret that his second term would be about revenge and “retribution” against his foes. And that apparently means breaking down guardrails intended to insulate the Justice Department from him and his politics.
The Post reported Sunday that Trump and his allies have mapped out specific plans to use the federal government to target his enemies. They have signaled a desire to pursue not only President Biden but also high-profile former allies who have turned critical of Trump.
Those former allies include ex-attorney general William P. Barr, ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, ex-White House chief of staff John F. Kelly and ex-Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb. Just to emphasize, that’s the incumbent president as well as the nation’s former top law enforcement officer, top military official and top White House staffer.
(It’s not clear what these figures would be investigated for. Trump has also suggestively referred to the death penalty for Milley in recent weeks.)
Trump’s associates have drafted plans, according to The Post’s report, to “dispense with 50 years of policy and practice intended to shield criminal prosecutions from political considerations.” Political interference in Justice Department matters figured heavily in Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal. In the early 2000s, the George W. Bush administration’s removals of U.S. attorneys for allegedly political purposes resulted in a criminal investigation.
They are also drafting preemptive plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on Trump’s first day to quell any demonstrations. A key figure in that effort is indicted former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who Trump’s indictment says floated using the same law to put down protests if Trump refused to leave office in 2021.
Some involved have distanced themselves from that last idea, but they’re talking openly about making the Justice Department less independent.
“I think that the supposedly independent DOJ is an illusion,” Clark told The Post.
“A president has every right to direct DOJ to look at items that are his policy priorities and other matters of national importance,” another Trump loyalist involved, Mark Paoletta, has told the New York Times.
Trump himself was asked in August about whether he would “lock” his foes “up” in a potential second term. He responded: “The answer is you have no choice, because they’re doing it to us.”
