Donald Trump was elected to a second term on a promise to exact his “retribution.” So it’s no wonder that federal investigators and others who worked with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office are taking the president-elect at his word.
According to two sources with knowledge of the matter and a former Justice Department official, several attorneys and staffers who were on the special counsel’s Justice Department team, or had done work for its criminal investigations into Trump, have already sought legal counsel or retained personal lawyers — in case the former and now future president and his incoming administration follow through on his desire to probe or even prosecute his enemies.
In less than a month, Trump will be inaugurated in Washington, D.C., for his second term in the Oval Office. He plans to mold much of the Department of Justice and FBI into a subsidiary of his own interests, and has suggested using these instruments to retaliate against those investigating him.
“The precedent on doing what they did, with the weaponization, using the DOJ and the FBI to go after their political opponents, that is so bad,” Trump said earlier this year. “That means I can do it too,” he added. “Pandora’s Box is open and that means that I can do it too.” Trump repeatedly pledged to be voters’ “retribution.” When President Joe Biden said during a debate that Trump would go after his political opponents, he did not deny that, instead offering: “I said my retribution is going to be success.”
One of the sources with knowledge of the situation tells Rolling Stone that multiple people who worked with Smith and his core team have preemptively reviewed their private and professional communications, to make sure they hadn’t written anything that could be subpoenaed, publicly revealed, and used against them to paint a narrative of alleged misconduct or supposed anti-Trump bias.
Some federal investigators, including more junior staff, have talked to attorneys and legal groups about possible ways a rejuvenated Trump Justice Department could try to make their lives hell, what precautionary measures they should take, and even how to avoid going bankrupt if the revenge probes come in full force, the sources add.
