While some critics prepare for Donald Trump’s return to the White House, others are in a position to fight.
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As Donald Trump is poised to pack America’s police apparatus with loyalists who may set a vengeful timetable on his behalf, some of his most prominent critics are bracing for the imaginable consequences they could face.
Recently, Georgia Rep. Barry Loudermilk used his position at the top of a House administration subcommittee to release a report calling on Trump’s new Justice Department to investigate and prosecute former Jan. 6 committee vice chair Liz Cheney for what he describes as “witness tampering” (actually, , then-Wyoming Congresswoman’s efforts to help Mark Meadows’ former aide Cassidy Hutchinson find new advice after she insisted on withholding information from the panel.
Trump has also called for all deceased House panel members to be jailed, and he has also called on critics and warring political parties to face criminal consequences as well.
He filed suit against the Des Moines Register and the Iowa-based election institute, whose pre-election polling revealed (incorrectly) that he was on the verge of losing the Hawkeye State to Vice President Kamala Harris by a double-digit margin.
His allies, in addition to his designated FBI director, Kash Patel, have also become accustomed to suing media organizations and their critics – on frivolous grounds – and on January 20, Patel and his MAGA friends would likely have their hands free to exert the full weight of the lawsuit. The U. S. government opposes others it considers insufficiently flattering toward the new president.
The list goes on and adds an organization that Patel named in an appendix to his memoirs, Government Gangsters, as members of an “executive deep state. “
The former National Security Council member has claimed in the media that those people, adding up the last two Democratic presidents, the last three Democratic presidential candidates, and other prominent law enforcement officials, and data that have angered Republicans over the years deserve to be jailed.
Now, some of Trump’s loudest critics are bracing for his return to power. Others are ready for a fight.
Mark Zaid, a Washington, D.C., national security lawyer who has advised whistleblowers and critics, has gone so far as to say that certain clients of his should find a reason to be beyond the reach of American law enforcement around the time of Trump’s return to power in just over a month.
He told Politico that he had encouraged “a small number of people” to “take a vacation out of the country around the time of the inauguration, just to see what happens. “
The range of what could happen should Trump turn the power of government against his perceived enemies is quite broad indeed.
In addition to contriving reasons to investigate, arrest and prosecute political foes, a Trump administration bent on revenge could subject critics to invasive IRS audits, make it difficult for critics to travel abroad or access financial services, and could harass and intimidate them with all manner of compulsory process short of arrest.
A number of prominent pro-democracy commentators and activists say there are already efforts in place to prepare for the possibility that the new administration will unleash untold amounts of harassment towards people who vexed the president during his first term in office. But some of Trump’s most vocal critics aren’t letting themselves be intimidated.
Rick Wilson, the former Republican ad-man who co-founded and still helps run the Lincoln Project Super PAC, told The Independent that his organization plans to return to messaging that helped drive down Trump’s popularity as he ran for re-election in 2020.
The group focused on Trump’s failures and incompetence rather than the more amorphous “pro-democracy” messaging that dominated the 2024 cycle.
“Democracy is incredibly important, but sadly it hasn’t convinced most Americans either. . . It’s important now to take advantage of this era that we’re about to start to explain that he won’t achieve the expected effects through other people that he concept it would be to deliver – he’s already saying, ‘I can’t lower prices, I can’t do this, I can’t do that’, and we feel that there’s an area of opportunity in front of us where we know that our kind of messages are going to be effective and we’re “We’ll be able to step in and present a “We want to continue with a concept of opposition to this guy,” said Wilson, who under pressure that his organization would not be part of this project. “hooded mob” that ruled anti-Trump circles during his first years in office.
Wilson, who has faced lawsuits from Trump allies in recent months, said he knows it’s conceivable that this time Trump’s administration will go beyond civil lawsuits.
But Wilson stressed that he would not back down from any fights.
“I suspect I’ll spend a good chunk of my time dealing with this kind of crap, dealing with congressional committees, whatever it is. But I think it’s incumbent on other people like me not to settle beforehand and not to work out of fear,” he said. “It’s not a productive emotion after a certain point, and I refuse to live that way right now – we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing, and if they stop me. . . They have to get me out feet first. I’m not going to bow down to those other people.
Wilson added that during his years in politics he was “very careful not to commit crimes,” adding that he avoided “stupid nonsense” that he described as cross-finance violations, with the help of “very smart legal counsel” to tell him so. when to close and not do safe things.
Another prominent Trump critic, conservative lawyer George Conway, said he was not worried about being targeted by the new administration because he had “nothing to investigate. “
Conway, a former corporate litigator who was once married to Trump aide and Republican political strategist Kellyanne Conway, told The Independent that his life is “pretty simple. “
“I don’t pay porn stars. I don’t have any wonderful investments. I don’t have cash business. “I invest all my money in the mutual budget because I spent 30 years in a law firm where we were only allowed to invest in the mutual budget,” he said.
He added that the only way for Trump or his allies to attack him is through a defamation lawsuit, which he said “would be great” because it would allow him to obtain information.
“I’m also afraid to follow them and make their lives miserable. As they pass behind me, they just pass by to give me a platform,” he said.
Some Trump critics who’ve been in the crosshairs of the soon-to-be-president’s inner circle are more concerned because of their one-time proximity to Trump.
Olivia Troye, former national security adviser to then-Vice President Mike Pence, told The Independent that she was very concerned about other people close to Trump, such as Patel, the new deputy cabinet leader. White House Steven Miller, designated director of the Office of Management and Budget. Russell Vought and others like them because they see her more as a defector due to her former proximity to the center of power.
Troye said she worries about what someone such as Patel, who has funded multiple lawsuits and legal threats against her, could do in power because he’ll have the backing of Trump and the support of Attorney General-designate Pam Bondi, another loyalist to the incoming president.
She also said she’s thinking about making security arrangements for herself and her family because Trump and his allies have a habit of exposing their adversaries to death threats and harassment by publicizing their names.
“It’s a time of madness, and when they do things, we’ve seen other people radicalize and act accordingly. So I just have to do what’s most productive for me and my family,” Troye said.
Wilson said he believed Trump would “absolutely attempt to abuse force in a horrific and profound way” by lashing out at his critics, if not him, then at least others like him.
But he warned those in the line of fire to “comply in advance” and warned that those further down the control table will not benefit from the same protections as those Trump benefited from.
“Donald Trump is immune thanks to the Supreme Court, but not every member of his leadership is immune from liability if they abuse their power,” he said. “We still don’t live in a world where there aren’t consequences for guys like Kash Patel or others within management. “
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Donald Trump is ready to return to the White House. That leaves his critics bracing for retribution
Donald Trump is ready to return to the White House.
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