By Steve Neavling
Donald Trump admitted he would use the FBI and Justice Department to exact revenge on political rivals if he’s reelected.
In an interview with the television network Univision, host Enrique Acevedo asked Trump about his intentions: “You say they’ve weaponized the Justice Department, they weaponized the FBI. Would you do the same if you’re reelected?”
“They’ve already done it, but if they want to follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse,” Trump responded. “They’ve released the genie out of the box.”
Trump continued: “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. They’ve done indictments in order to win an election. They call it weaponization. … 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. They’d be out of the election.”
Trump’s admission that he would use the federal law enforcement agencies to go after political opponents comes a week after The Washington Post reported that his advisers and friends said the former president would exploit the Justice Department to bring down rivals.
Using the Justice Department to take punitive steps for political purposes would be a radical departure from policies imposed by past presidents to restrict communication with prosecutors.
