Members of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution team are reportedly hiring lawyers and preparing for possible legal action by incoming President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, according to the Rolling Stone.

The magazine reported this week:

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.

…

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.

Independent reporter Julie Kelly, who has documented the abuses of power by the Department of Justice in cases involving the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021, noted on X that the “hunter” had become the “hunted.”

Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker in an interview earlier this month that he was not interested in retribution — at least against President Joe Biden:

I’m really looking to make our country successful. I’m not looking to go back into the past. I’m looking to make our country successful. Retribution will be through success. If we can make our success — this country successful, that would be my greatest, that would be such a great achievement.

However, many conservatives have argued that Trump has a legal cause of action to investigate, and perhaps sue or prosecute, those who participated in abusive “lawfare” against him.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.