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‘Legal Terrorist’: How Trump Has Waged a Half-Century Battle Against the US Justice System

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Unless former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley somehow manages to pull off a major upset, the 2024 presidential race will likely be a rematch between GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden. This comes at a time when Trump is up against four criminal indictments and a variety of civil lawsuits — an unprecedented situation for the presumptive presidential nominee of a major political party in the United States.

Trump has been angrily railing against the judges and prosecutors in the criminal and civil cases he is facing, and his critics on both the left and the right have been warning that he is waging a full-fledged assault on the rule of law.

But in an article published on January 12, Politico’s Michael Kruse emphasizes that Trump’s battle with the American legal system didn’t begin when he became a politician — it has been going for over half a century.

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“Trump and his allies say he is the victim of the weaponization of the justice system, but the reality is exactly the opposite,” Kruse explains. “For literally more than 50 years, according to thousands of pages of court records and hundreds of interviews with lawyers and legal experts, people who have worked for Trump, against Trump or both, and many of the myriad litigants who’ve been caught in the crossfire, Trump has taught himself how to use and abuse the legal system for his own advantage and aims.”

Kruse continues, “Many might view the legal system as a place to try to avoid, or as perhaps a necessary evil, or maybe even as a noble arbiter of equality and fairness. Not Trump. He spent most of his adult life molding it into an arena in which he could stake claims and hunt leverage. It has not been for him a place of last resort so much as a place of constant quarrel.”

As a young real estate mogul back in 1973, the Politico reporter notes, Trump was carefully studying the methods used by the “notorious” lawyer Roy Cohn. Trump, according to Kruse, “exploited as loopholes the legal system’s bedrock tenets” when, in 1973, the federal government sued him for “racist rental practices.”

Conservative legal expert J. Michael Luttig, a retired judge, told Politico, “He has attacked the judicial system, our system of justice and the rule of law his entire life. And this, to him, is the grand finale.”

READ MORE: What Trump’s lawyer was really advocating

Similarly, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California) told Politico, “There’s probably no single person in America who is more, I would say, knowledgeable and experienced in our legal system — as both a plaintiff and as a defendant — than Donald Trump…. Trump is a legal terrorist.”

Another prominent Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California), warns that 2024 could determine whether the rule of law survives of collapses in the U.S.

Schiff told Politico, “We’re about to go through a great trial in this country.… We’re going to be testing the proposition that the rule of law applies to everyone and no one’s above the law. It will be particularly wrenching because Trump will continue to make the false claim that he’s being politically persecuted, and it will also give Trump the continuing opportunity to tear down the system.”

READ MORE: ‘Sobering’ analysis shows how Trump’s ‘immunity’ argument could make another term even more dangerous

Read Michael Kruse’s full report for Politico at this link.

 

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Trump Aims Treason Allegation at His Former FBI Director in New Online Attack

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President Donald Trump is targeting his former FBI Director in a series of social media posts, including a repost that accused Christopher Wray of treason.

Trump reposted a post on Monday that placed Wray among sixteen people — including several former FBI officials — and labeled them as “Obama’s Russia HOAX Treason Club.”

Those depicted as members of the alleged “Treason Club” include Wray’s predecessor, former FBI Director Jim Comey; former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe; former CIA Directors John Brennan and Gina Haspel; former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

READ MORE: Trump to Rub Elbows With McDonald’s Owners in Push to Promote ‘Affordability’

Another post that Trump reposted accused former Director Wray of lying when he testified before Congress that he did not put FBI agents in the crowd on January 6.

Trump wrote: “Wray lied!!!”

The president also reposted a post he wrote in September, that reads in part, “It was just revealed that the FBI had secretly placed, against all Rules, Regulations, Protocols, and Standards, 274 FBI Agents into the Crowd just prior to, and during, the January 6th Hoax.”

Trump did not appear to provide evidence that supported his allegations.

READ MORE: Democrat Warns How Trump Could Engineer a Path to Stay in Power After 2028

Wray has denied there were FBI agents in the crowd as some form of operation.

A September Associated Press headline reported: “Alleged FBI documents do not prove federal agents incited Jan. 6 Capitol attack.”

Trump has also been calling for the prosecutions of his political adversaries, including U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director Comey, and former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

READ MORE: ‘Mask Comes Off’: Trump Branded an ‘Elitist’ as Base Scrutinizes ‘America First’ Focus

 

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Trump to Rub Elbows With McDonald’s Owners in Push to Promote ‘Affordability’

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As Americans watch grocery prices rise, inflation tick upward, and millions face soaring medical insurance premiums next year, President Donald Trump is trying to center his message on affordability — even as he denies what many Americans are experiencing.

On Monday, the president will spend time with McDonald’s owners, operators and suppliers to promote his new “affordability” message, which Axios calls “part of an escalating White House push to take on Americans’ economic worries.”

But the message Trump is expected to send will be aimed at McDonald’s owners and franchisees, rather than at low- and middle-income customers.

READ MORE: Democrat Warns How Trump Could Engineer a Path to Stay in Power After 2028

“During remarks at an Impact Summit hosted in Washington by McDonald’s, Trump is expected to tout steps he has taken to support small businesses and job creators,” Axios reported.

Earlier this month Trump told reporters, “Affordability, they call it, was a con job by the Democrats.”

He is also expected to push his “No Tax on Tips … No Tax on Overtime … No Tax on Social Security” claims. Some experts say Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” did not include “No Tax on Social Security.”

Axios’ Mike Allen reported, “A key message at the McDonald’s summit will be that value and affordability are ‘so important to consumers and elected officials [that] our franchisees and company are co-investing to bring extra value and affordability to our customers,’ an official told me.”

The White House also took a swing at the Biden administration.

“The Biden administration started the affordability crisis, but President Trump will end it so all Americans can achieve economic prosperity,” a White House official told Allen.

President Trump on the 2024 campaign trail vowed to lower prices “on day one,” as CNN reported.

READ MORE: ‘Mask Comes Off’: Trump Branded an ‘Elitist’ as Base Scrutinizes ‘America First’ Focus

 

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DOJ Blasted for Taking Epstein Investigation Orders From Trump

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Attorney General Pam Bondi quickly — and publicly — agreed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s request that she use the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Democrats and corporations that may have had ties to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump on Friday declared that Epstein is the “Democrat’s problem” and not Republicans’, then called for the DOJ, FBI, and Bondi “to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.”

The New York Times reported that the “inquiry appeared to be retribution for the renewed focus on his own ties to Mr. Epstein.”

Just hours later, Bondi agreed.

READ MORE: Trump Stumbles Over ‘God Bless America’ Lyrics at Veterans Day Ceremony

“Thank you, Mr. President. SDNY U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton is one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country, and I’ve asked him to take the lead. As with all matters, the Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people,” she wrote.

The New York Times called Bondi’s acquiescence “a stark demonstration of her willingness to surrender the traditional independence of the Justice Department to serve Trump’s personal political agenda.”

The Times also reported that Bondi assigning the investigation to the Southern District of New York “could create significant conflict within an office known for its investigative might and independence.”

NBC News senior White House correspondent Garrett Haake reported that “In July, the FBI and DOJ wrote in their memo that they were not releasing the Epstein files in part because ‘We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.’ – and now, after a push from the President, here we are.”

Legal experts and other critics denounced the moves.

READ MORE: Democrat Warns How Trump Could Engineer a Path to Stay in Power After 2028

“Count the ways they’re corrupting DOJ,” wrote former longtime U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, now an MSNBC legal analyst and professor of law. “Presidents don’t direct AG’s to open criminal cases, especially ones designating only Dems for investigation when POTUS himself is involved. DOJ doesn’t publicize criminal investigations & the AG definitely doesn’t assign them on Twitter.”

MSNBC executive producer Kyle Griffin asked, “If this investigation was legitimate, why wasn’t this investigation opened months ago? If this investigation was legitimate, why isn’t everyone mentioned in Epstein’s emails being investigated?”

Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon added, “When the president gives orders to Pam Bondi and our law enforcement arms of the federal government, it undercuts the credibility of our law enforcement.”

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for him to do it. I would ask him not to do that, because all it does is taint our legal system,” Bacon concluded.

Responding to Bondi’s remarks, civil liberties and national security journalist Marcy Wheeler wrote: “Unabashed corruption.”

“This has absolutely nothing to do with crime,” she stated. “Pam Bondi is just debasing her entire department for her liege so that she can stave off Congress from releasing whatever damning information she has on Trump. It’s a cover-up pure and simple and merely an indication of Trump’s desperation.”

READ MORE: ‘Mask Comes Off’: Trump Branded an ‘Elitist’ as Base Scrutinizes ‘America First’ Focus

 

Image via Reuters

 

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