Nov. 10 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump suggested during a Univision interview that aired Thursday that he could use the Justice Department against his critics if elected because he believes they have done the same to him.
In the interview with Univision reporter Enrique Acevedo, Trump said the Biden administration and his supporters have “weaponized” the law against him and he could return the favor. Trump is currently facing 91 charges from various cases that could derail his GOP-leading candidacy to return to the White House.
“Yeah. If they do this, and they’ve already done it, but if they follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse,” Trump said in the interview. “What they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box.
“You know, when you’re president and you’ve done a good job and you’re popular, you don’t go after them so you can win an election. They have done something that allows the next party … if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business. They’d be out of the election.”
Trump then compared the United States to other authoritarian countries, without using any by name, suggesting that some had been “effective” prosecuting their opponents.
“Well, he’s unleashed something that everybody, we’ve all known about this for a hundred years,” Trump said, apparently referencing President Joe Biden and his administration.
“We’ve watched other countries do it and, in some cases, effective and in other cases, the country’s overthrown or it’s been totally ineffective. But we’ve watched this for a long time, and it’s not unique, but it’s unique for the United States.”
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of his cases, ranging from federal and state counts alleging election interference, the mishandling of federal classified documents, and falsifying business records.