Former US President, Donald Trump may investigate political opponents if re-elected
Nov 10, 2023
Washington D.C. [United States], November 10 : Former United States President Donald Trump declared that if re-elected in 2024, he would use the government to investigate his political opponents, suggesting it would be fair game after the Department of Justice indicted him in two separate cases earlier this year, reported The Hill.
The Department of Justice has charged Trump in Florida over his handling and retention of classified information after leaving office, additionally in Washington, D.C., for his efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election and remain in power.
Trump also faces state charges in New York for an alleged hush money scheme in order to keep an affair quiet, and he is facing charges in Georgia for his efforts to overturn the state's 2020 election results. The former president believes that the charges brought against him are a form of election interference to try and disrupt his chances. Trump argues that President Biden and his Justice Department are seeking to damage his chances of winning the 2024 election and to help Biden achieve key states.
Nevertheless, Biden and his aides have been adamant that the president has had no communication with US Attorney General Merrick Garland about the Trump cases, and the administration has refrained from commenting on the cases publicly, according to The Hill.
Attorney General, Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to handle the investigations into Trump, citing potential conflicts of interest since Trump is running for office.
Trump, speaking in an interview with Univision said, "If they do this, and they've already done it, but if they follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse. It could certainly happen in reverse," Trump said during the interview. "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", The Hill reported.
"You know, when you're president and you've done a good job and you're popular, you don't go after them so you can win an election," Trump continued."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 that would be, you know, they'd be out of business. They'd be out of the election," he added.
The comments are similar to what Trump said during a rally in Hialeah, Florida, on Wednesday night.
"Now that he indicted me, we're allowed to look at him. But he did real bad things," Trump said at the rally, adding that he would direct the Justice Department "to investigate every Marxist prosecutor in America."
Despite Trump being indicted in four separate cases this year, he continues to dominate the Republican presidential primary contest, leading by an average of nearly 60 points in national polls. Trump is a clear frontrunner for the party's nomination, with a spate of recent polls showing Trump leading Biden in key states, the US newspaper reported.
