"Weaponization" Is The New Voter Fraud
In his baseless claims that Joe Biden is weaponizing the justice system against him, Donald Trump is using a well-worn conspiracy theory playbook.
Donald Trump and his right-wing enablers are nothing if not consistent in their reaction to his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying documents in the first degree: It’s Biden’s fault.
Weaponization of the justice system, they cry!
And as with everything from the right, the accusation is really just a confession.
Before Trump was even on the scene, Republicans had mastered the art of weaponizing congressional investigative power against their political foes.
Remember the GOP’s Benghazi hearings that sought to weaken Hillary Clinton ahead of her expected 2016 presidential run? Kevin McCarthy was at least honest about their intention:
Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?
But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.
Once that investigation brought her personal email server to light, Trump had no shame about taking the issue to the extreme by repeating “Lock her up!” at every opportunity.
Yes, Donald Trump literally ran on imprisoning his political opponent.
Yet we’re meant to take Trump’s outrage at supposedly having the justice system “weaponized” against him seriously?
It’s comical, but it is a familiar playbook. It’s the Big Lie redux.
After the 2020 election, Trump insisted on a similar, disprovable false claim of a stolen election. He positioned himself as the victim of the corrupt left, urging his supporters to fight back.
Fortunately, just as with the Big Lie, it appears a majority of Americans are not fooled this time around either. A new poll finds that 57% disagree with Trump’s lie that Joe Biden is directing the prosecutions against him. But it is working with one specific cohort: 80% of Republicans believe the claim. It is precisely the dynamic that emerged with Trump’s election lies.
In today’s piece, I’ll take a look at how Trump is repeating his 2020 election fraud playbook, how Republicans once again are following his claims with action, and how reality on the ground is painting a much different picture than the false reality they are constructing.
Retaliation Is The Point
As with most things Donald Trump does, he is so delusionally convinced of his own righteousness that he doesn’t hide much of what he is doing, saying it out loud for all to hear.
Such is the case with his grievance-driven claims that he is the target of weaponized government and justice institutions. Trump had claimed any election he lost to be “rigged,” and now he claims that the judicial system is rigged against him as well. He is never the loser and never the perpetrator. He is always the victim.
And in every instance, there is always one tired, Trumpian response: to do the very thing to his enemies that he falsely claims are being done to him.
As CREW found in their extensive analysis of Trump’s Truth Social posts between January 1, 2023 and April 1, 2024:
Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to weaponize the federal government during a second administration by pursuing revenge, retaliation and retribution against his political enemies.
CREW elaborated:
Since the start of last year, Trump has issued direct or implied threats on Truth Social to use the powers of the federal government to target Joe Biden during a second Trump administration 25 times. Specifically, Trump has threatened him with FBI raids, investigations, indictments and even jail time.
And so, in the wake of his guilty verdicts, it’s hardly surprising to see him flip the narrative and call for retaliation against Biden and the Democrats.
In a recent Newsmax interview, Trump spoke openly of retaliation:
When Sean Hannity tried to get him to walk back his retaliation talk, Trump doubled down:
By insisting on his own innocence and casting himself as the victim of corrupt prosecutions, he is signaling to his supporters that any retribution is justified.
And elected Republicans have already begun.
In the wake of Trump’s guilty verdicts by a jury of his peers, 10 Republican Senators have vowed to bring the U.S. Senate to a halt, releasing a letter pledging to block President Biden’s funding requests and political appointments, all based on the false notion that he was somehow behind the prosecution.
Implementing countermeasures over a fabricated wrong is a classic “false flag” operation. Putin used a planted bombing of a building in Russia to justify war in Chechnya. Hitler used a false claim of an attack by Poland to justify “retaliating” and launching World War II. And, on a smaller but still notable scale, Republicans leveraged false claims of a stolen election to pass draconian voter suppression laws.
As The AP reported in 2021:
Republican lawmakers in statehouses across the country are moving swiftly to attack some of the voting methods that fueled the highest turnout for a presidential election in 50 years.
Although most legislative sessions are just getting underway, the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy institute, has already tallied more than 100 bills in 28 states meant to restrict voting access. More than a third of those proposals are aimed at limiting mail voting, while other bills seek to strengthen voter ID requirements and registration processes, as well as allow for more aggressive means to remove people from voter rolls.
The justification Republicans give for such measures is quite rich:
Many Republicans have said the new bills are meant to shore up public confidence after Trump and his GOP allies, without evidence, criticized the election as fraudulent.
Step 1: Call the integrity of voting into question. Step 2: Use the lack of confidence in voting that you yourself created to justify cracking down on voting.
Sound familiar?
In April, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent the Department of Justice a letter calling on them to defend against what he called “Justice Department Coordination with Alvin Bragg's Politicized Prosecution.”
But Jordan’s own words in the letter reveal the truth about this so-called “politicization.”
He wrote:
“Given the perception that the Biden DOJ is assisting in Bragg's politicized prosecution…”
And
“...the perception that the Biden Justice Department is politicized and weaponized.”
Once again, the mere perception that something corrupt is afoot, a perception that was created by Trump and his enablers, justifies taking action against the purported wrongdoers.
Rinse and repeat.
The Notion That Biden Is Behind Trump’s Prosecutions Is Objectively Absurd
The lack of any factual basis for Trump’s election fraud claims in 2020 are well known.
As The AP pointed out in 2021:
Those claims were turned away by dozens of courts and were made even as a group of election officials — including representatives of the federal government’s cybersecurity agency — deemed the 2020 presidential election the “the most secure in American history.” Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, also said he saw no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the election results.
Today, we can similarly dismiss Trump’s charges that Joe Biden has somehow masterminded prosecutions against Trump.
Take Alvin Bragg’s New York State prosecution against Trump, which recently resulted in guilty verdicts in 34 criminal counts.
When Bragg brought an indictment against Trump back in March 2023, it was widely seen as a questionable case. After all, the federal Department of Justice had already passed on prosecuting Trump for violating election law. Specifically, the DOJ had passed in 2019 because the standing policy of the Office of Legal Counsel is not to bring criminal charges against a sitting president. But federal prosecutors with the Southern District of New York also chose not to proceed with charges after Trump was out of office. While Joe Biden’s DOJ decided not to proceed, Alvin Bragg, the recently elected Manhattan District Attorney, chose to move ahead with state charges.
And as many legal experts have made clear, there is no chain of communication between Bragg’s office and federal authorities, let alone any directives given or received.
A point the Justice Department themselves made in a new letter swatting down Jim Jordan’s false claims, debunking Trump’s entire weaponization conspiracy:
As the DOJ wrote in its cuttingly dry response:
The [Judiciary] Committee has demanded information from the Department because of what you describe as a “perception that the Justice Department is” behind the District Attorney’s so-called “politicized prosecution” and a “perception that the Biden Justice Department is politicized and weaponized” to that end.
The Department does not generally make extensive efforts to rebut conspiratorial speculation, including to avoid the risk of lending it credibility. However, consistent with the Attorney General’s commitment to transparency, the Department has taken extraordinary steps to confirm what was already clear: there is no basis for these false claims.
They went on to describe the lengths they took to debunk Jorrdan’s claims:
The Department has conducted a comprehensive search for email communications since January 20, 2021, through the date of the verdict, between any officials in Department leadership, including all political appointees in those offices, and the District Attorney’s office regarding any investigation or prosecution of the former President. We found none. This is unsurprising. The District Attorney’s office is a separate entity from the Department. The Department does not supervise the work of the District Attorney’s office, does not approve its charging decisions, and does not try its cases. The Department has no control over the District Attorney, just as the District Attorney has no control over the Department. The Committee knows this.
Additionally, Merrick Garland took to The Washington Post opinion page to swat it down further, making clear:
The Justice Department makes decisions about criminal investigations based only on the facts and the law. We do not investigate people because of their last name, their political affiliation, the size of their bank account, where they come from or what they look like. We investigate and prosecute violations of federal law — nothing more, nothing less.
We do this not only because of the principles that have long guided our work, but also because we know that our democracy cannot survive without a justice system that ensures the equal protection of law for all its citizens.
Of course, these denials will not deter those who take it as an article of faith that Biden’s Justice Department is corruptly targeting Republicans. The fact is, two of the four criminal cases against Trump are federal DOJ cases.
But one need only look at the Democrats the Department has indicted, including sitting Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and sitting Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, to know that Republicans are not the only targets of prosecution by this DOJ.
And perhaps most important of all, it was Attorney General Merrick Garland who assigned Republican Trump appointee, David Weiss, as special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation. Just today, that resulted in three guilty verdicts against the President’s son.
As Jonathan Chait notes, the Hunter Biden conviction should “Blow Up Republican Conspiracy Theories” about the supposed “weaponization” of Biden’s justice system.
To hold this theory together — which, again, is the belief held by a supermajority of Republicans, not just the Glenn Beck audience — you have to believe Biden is directing the activities of local prosecutors while exerting no control at all over the Justice Department of the branch of government he presides over.
It should be noted that before the verdicts came down, Joe Biden pledged not to question the verdict and not to pardon his son in the event of a guilty verdict.
These are two things we all know Donald Trump would never promise and would absolutely find a way to do.
Does Trump Really Get Defacto Immunity?
But it’s not just Trump allies like Rep. Jim Jordan and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) who believe Trump should not have been prosecuted by Bragg in the recent election interference case.
We already know that Trump’s packed Supreme Court has essentially granted him defacto immunity by putting the case on hold as they interminably consider what has always been a delay tactic: Trump’s brazen claim of immunity in his actions on January 6th.
But even a moderate Republican like Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who is no fan of Trump, seems to be making the case that there is no instance in which Trump can be legitimately prosecuted for crimes.
As she put it in her statement after Trump’s guilty verdicts:
“It is fundamental to our American system of justice that the government prosecutes cases because of alleged criminal conduct regardless of who the defendant happens to be. In this case the opposite has happened. The district attorney, who campaigned on a promise to prosecute Donald Trump, brought these charges precisely because of who the defendant was rather than because of any specified criminal conduct,” she said in a statement.
“The political underpinnings of this case further blur the lines between the judicial system and the electoral system, and this verdict likely will be the subject of a protracted appeals process.”
Not only does Collins’ statement fail a basic truth test on the merits, as John Harwood confirmed, posting Politifact’s fact-check:
But Collins seems to think Trump should have de facto immunity from any prosecution because of who he “happens to be.”
This gets it exactly wrong. The fact that a former President is being prosecuted on multiple criminal counts should give us more confidence in our justice system, not less. It shows that justice is blind when even a former president—or as with Hunter Biden, the son of a sitting president—can be brought to justice. That means even the powerful are not above the law.
It simply cannot be the case that former presidents who commit crimes can escape justice under their successor simply because it is unseemly. Or because Sen. Collins has concerns. Even Trump’s own lawyers in his second impeachment trial made the case that he should be acquitted of the impeachment charges because he could be criminally liable for crimes once he was a private citizen.
Specifically, when Trump was impeached over the Capitol riot in 2021, his lawyers drilled down on one key point: a former president shouldn't face impeachment proceedings; he should face the courts.
This was an argument repeated by then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor, saying:
“President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen, unless the statute of limitations has run, still liable for everything he did while in office, didn't get away with anything yet – yet.
“We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”
Republicans would be wise to remember McConnell’s words as they prepare now to officially elevate a twice-impeached convicted felon found liable for sexual abuse and financial fraud to be the standard bearer of their party.
And we should be reminded of the company that Trump keeps, all the Trump confidants and collaborators who have been found guilty, many of them prosecuted and found guilty during Trump’s own time in office.
MSNBC compiled this non-exhaustive list:
Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
Trump’s former campaign vice chairman, Rick Gates, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
Trump’s former adviser and former campaign aide, Roger Stone, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
Trump’s former adviser and former White House aide Peter Navarro, was charged, convicted, and is currently in prison.
Trump’s former campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
The Trump Organization’s former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
Trump’s former White House national security advisor, Michael Flynn, was charged and convicted.
Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was charged with wire fraud and money laundering, in addition to a conviction in a contempt case similar to Navarro’s. He’s been ordered to prison on July 1.
Are these really all just victims of a political witchhunt? Or is it just possible that this is a cabal of felons and scoundrels, led by a chief criminal who is also now, at long last facing criminal accountability?
Perhaps the popular sports podcaster, Colin Cowherd, who often supports and backs Republicans, put it best:
“Donald Trump is now a felon. His campaign chairman was a felon. So is his deputy campaign manager, his personal lawyer, his chief strategist, his National Security Adviser, his Trade Advisor, his Foreign Policy Adviser, his campaign fixer and his company CFO. They’re all felons. Judged by the company you keep. It’s a cabal of convicts.”
He continued:
“If everybody in your social circle is a felon, I don’t think it’s rigged. I don’t think the world’s against you.”
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Conservatives are exhausting. Everything they don’t like or agree with is somehow “rigged”, “weaponized” or “woke”. There is a vast portion of our citizenry that cannot accept a loss. They were the kids who tossed the Monopoly board when they were losing (while also stealing from the bank).
For people who often told liberals to “get over it” when Hillary lost, they can’t seem to get over anything.
susan collins is a LIAR, a weakling unwilling to stand up against DEMENTIA DON's illegal actions and threats, and a disgrace to our country and the state she supposedly represents.