MAGA lawyers have drawn up plans to bring down Letitia James if Trump re-elected: report
MAGA lawyers are crafting legal strategies the Department of Justice could use to specifically target New York Attorney General Letitia James if Donald Trump is re-elected, according to a new report.
Three sources confirmed the behind-the-scene plans to Rolling Stone, while two sources specified one proposal involved federal prosecutors accusing James of attempting to illegally interfere with the 2024 presidential election, an ironic consideration given that Trump has been indicted in federal court and in Georgia with attempting to illegally overturn his own 2020 election loss.
The scheme would come as revenge for Trump being ordered to pay $355 million in damages after a New York judge found him liable for habitually lying on financial documents to obtain better terms on loans — an amount of damages which has vastly increased with interest.
The case was brought in a lawsuit brought by James, and two of the sources said the ex-president has been briefed in recent months on various legal theories that could be used against the attorney general.
Trump has responded to those updates with approval and sometimes enthusiasm, the sources said, and one source said the former president has emphasized that such prosecutions must happen to restore what he calls "law and order."
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Another strategy would involve DOJ targeting James with a section of the criminal code that prohibits state officials from using their “official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate for the office of President," but some of Trump's own former attorneys are dubious the DOJ could be used against her.
"Honestly, one of the things I really liked about Trump was that after he won in 2016, he cut the whole ‘lock her up’ stuff out,” says former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore, who worked on the defense team handling special counsel Jack Smith’s probes. “He could have pushed his DOJ to prosecute, but he didn’t, because we shouldn’t be abusing the criminal justice system to lock up political opponents."
"We need to keep politics out of the criminal justice system, no matter which party is in office," Parlatore added. "I am not a fan of the prosecutions against Trump, but I am equally against seeking criminal retribution against political opponents. It would push us into a downward spiral.”
But that hasn't stopped Trump's allies, who are also exploring other ways to punish prosecutors who have investigated and charged the former president, including specific statutes that his administration could target Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has charged him in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
“I have been [present] when the [former] president has asked people to draw up a plan for how to deal with Alvin Bragg and how the Department of Justice could respond to Bragg’s ‘illegal’ investigation of the president,” said one source familiar with the matter.