President Donald Trump has made no secret that he wants to prosecute his political enemies.
While Republicans have largely waved off his threats as facetious jabs at Democrats, Trump on Saturday very publicly directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political opponents.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” he wrote on Truth Social. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Now that Trump is explicitly making good on his campaign promise to seek revenge, Democrats are angry — but not surprised — that the threats they long warned of are coming to fruition.
“Trump is turning the Justice Department into his personal weapon, not fighting for justice, being impartial, or making decisions based on facts and the law but purely targeting his perceived enemies,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, a manager during Trump’s first impeachment, said in a statement to NOTUS.
“Republicans who control the House and Senate are spineless and too scared to stand up to him because of what he could do in retaliation,” Nadler continued. “This is not normal and in no way should be acceptable to the American people.”
Trump made his contempt for his political enemies known at the Sunday memorial for Charlie Kirk, where he said that he hates his “opponent” and he does not “want the best for them.”
“After such a tragedy, past presidents have worked to heal and bring the nation together,” Rep. Jason Crow, who was a manager during Trump’s first impeachment, told NOTUS. “But Donald Trump is attempting to use this moment to seize power and go after his political opponents.”
“I went to war three times for this country to defend the free speech rights of Americans, including those who I may disagree with,” he continued. “I won’t remain silent as the President and his administration try to silence dissent.”
Trump has spent almost his entire political career pledging to go after his political foes: He threatened to “jail” members of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack. He called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to “go after” President Joe Biden and his family. And he centered his messaging at the end of his 2016 campaign on “locking up” the Democratic nominee for president, Hillary Clinton.
The Truth Social post he directed at Bondi fits into a broader trend of hostility from the Justice Department that House Democrats have been raising alarms about as recently as last week, pointing to, among other examples, the federal indictment against Rep. LaMonica McIver. Democrats say that the perceived aggression from Trump and the DOJ is an intimidation tactic, and insist they won’t bend under the pressure.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who led more than 200 congressional Democrats in suing Trump during his first term for violating the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, told NOTUS that Democrats “need to be ready, all of us, for what a lawless administration may do. But I’m continuing with my work because that’s my job, and that’s what the people of Connecticut chose me to do.”
“We need to redouble our strength and courage because the fight against this misuse of prosecutorial authority is so deeply dangerous,” he added. “So I think it should inspire us to be more vigilant and vigorous.”
Rep. Dianna DeGette, who also served as an impeachment manager, said that Democrats need to work through their fears — especially as increased visibility opens them up to more threats.
“I know some of my junior colleagues are worried. They haven’t been through this. I was there for Sept. 11. I was there for Jan. 6, and I was an impeachment manager,” DeGette said. “I’ve been the target of threats and even protests, but, you know, I’m elected to do a job.”
“You have to be sympathetic to it, especially the people who have small kids. It’s hard for them,” she added. “But then, they have to make sure that they take this seriously, but not let it impact the job they’re doing for their constituents.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, who Trump specifically named when urging Bondi to prosecute his political foes, told MSNBC that the president wants to “send a message that anyone who stands up to him on anything, anyone who has the audacity to call out his corruption will be a target, and they will go after you.”
“It’s an effort to try to silence and intimidate people, but I refuse to be silenced or intimidated,” he continued.
The legal threats against Democrats stand in particularly stark contrast to an MSNBC report that said the DOJ dropped an investigation into Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, after he allegedly accepted a $50,000 bribe from undercover agents, pledging to help them get contracts with the Trump administration. The White House said Monday that administration officials “stand by” Homan.
“You have both the dismissal of charges against the president’s allies like Eric Adams, the dismissal of investigations against Tom Homan and pressure to bring meritless investigations against the president’s enemies,” Schiff said.
Sen. Chris Murphy told ABC News on Sunday that there are “two standards of justice now in this country.”
“If you are a friend of the president, a loyalist to the president, you can get away with literally anything, including beating the hell out of police officers,” Murphy said. “But if you are an opponent of the president, you may find yourself in jail.”
“Again, that is Cuba,” he continued. “That’s Iran. That’s Russia. That is not the United States.”
White House officials have doubled down on Trump’s directive to Bondi, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that the president is entitled to openly say how he feels about his opponents.
“The president has every right to express how he feels about these people who literally campaigned on trying to put him in jail, who literally tried to ruin his life and ruin his business,” Leavitt told reporters Monday. “And he wants to see accountability for those who abuse their office and about their power, and Letitia James did that, whether you want to admit it or not.”
“It’s accountability,” she added.
But for Democrats, Trump’s interference with the Justice Department has crossed the line. In the past, the department had made an effort to maintain political impartiality. During the Biden administration, for example, there was an internal policy that sought to “ensure that the public views the Department as objective, impartial, and insulated from political influence.” That clause has since been removed under Trump.
“The Department of Justice is one of the great institutions in law enforcement in the history of this country,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN. “Donald Trump and these extremists have been destroying its integrity.”
“We should also blame the conservative justices on the Supreme Court for all of the things that we see happening,” Jeffries continued, “because they basically gave this president blanket presidential immunity in a country where the framers of the Constitution said, ‘We don’t want a king.’ But they’ve effectively enabled Donald Trump at times to behave just like a king.”
When the Supreme Court last year ruled that a former president has immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts — effectively protecting Trump’s attempt to use the DOJ to interfere in the 2020 election results from prosecution — some lawmakers at the time were already bracing for his return to the White House under this newly established court precedent.
“I think it almost encourages a president, or tempts a president, to commit acts that violate criminal law, and do so under the umbrella of official business,” a House Democrat who served as an impeachment manager told NOTUS ahead of last year’s election. “It’s dangerous, generally, to set that as your rule, but with Donald Trump possibly going back to the White House, it’s especially dangerous for the country.”
From the moment Trump returned to office in January, Democrats have been preparing in case they get targeted by the administration, doing everything from taking out liability insurance plans to forming legal defense funds.
“We have to be clear that Donald Trump’s going to do whatever he can to go after people that he disagrees with,” Rep. Robert Garcia told NOTUS last month. The Justice Department in February threatened to open an investigation against Garcia for saying Democrats should bring “actual weapons to this bar fight.”
“I’ve seen it first hand,” Garcia continued. “I think people have to be prepared that he’s going to do anything and everything to go after folks, and we have to be prepared and understand that that’s also part of the job at this moment.”