(NewsNation) — The fallout from Former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in the New York hush money case has taken a darker turn, with demands for retribution coming from the right.
“What’s wrong with making the Democrats live by the same standard that they have made Donald Trump live by,” asked former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. “What’s wrong with making it real?”
Several Republican lawmakers have made various proposals to attack the FBI and local prosecutors who are pursuing cases against former President Donald Trump, most notably Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis.
While the FBI receives significant federal funding, prosecutors such as Bragg and Willis, whose offices are primarily run through state and local funds, do not.
On NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live,” Mulvaney suggested that a Trump-led Justice Department might examine President Joe Biden’s tax returns, or those of other prominent Democrats “to see if there is anything marginally close to being illegal, and then bringing criminal action. What’s wrong with making Democrats live by the same standard?”
Several notable Democrats do face significant legal troubles. New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez is on trial for allegedly taking bribes. Texas Rep. Henry Cueller was indicted last month on charges of accepting money from Azerbaijan and a Mexican commercial bank. Rep. Cori Bush is under federal investigation over her campaign spending. Former Rep. T.J. Cox of California is still awaiting trial on charges of fraudulent campaign contributions.
“It’s all about stopping lawfare,” House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told reporters Monday. He wants to withhold funding for a new FBI headquarters and defunding what he calls politicized prosecutions.
During Tuesday’s testimony by Attorney General Merrick Garland before the Judiciary Committee, ranking Democrat Jerrold Nadler of New York shot back on the “lawfare” concept.
The idea that the department is somehow orchestrating state prosecutions of the former president “for criminal activity that has been well documented” is a “ridiculous assertion,” Nadler said.
Could such legal retribution come with a new Trump administration?
“It’s hard to say,” said Mulvaney, who recalled that Trump ran against Hillary Clinton on a promise to “lock her up.”
“When he had a chance to do that, he didn’t do that, so there is a question of whether this is all hyperbole and campaign rhetoric or whether or not it’s real,” he said. “I’m not happy that the standard has been lowered to where it is, (but) this is now the world that we live in.”
The Hill contributed to this report