Members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol have warned America for three years to take former President Donald Trump at his word.

Now, as Trump is poised to win the Republican presidential nomination, his criminal trials face delays that could stall them past Election Day, and his rhetoric grows increasingly authoritarian, some of those lawmakers find themselves following their own advice.

In mid-March, Trump said on social media that the committee members should be jailed. In December he vowed to be a dictator on “day one.” In August, he said he would “have no choice” but to lock up his political opponents.

“If he intends to eliminate our constitutional system and start arresting his political enemies, I guess I would be on that list,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose). “One thing I did learn on the committee is to pay attention and listen to what Trump says, because he means it.”

Lofgren added that she doesn’t yet have a plan in place to thwart potential retribution by Trump. But Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), who has long been a burr in Trump’s side, said he’s having “real-time conversations” with his staff about how to make sure he stays safe if Trump follows through on his threats.

“We’re taking this seriously, because we have to,” Schiff said. “We’ve seen this movie before … and how perilous it is to ignore what someone is saying when they say they want to be a dictator.”

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆M
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    3 months ago

    LMAO I love how all the libs who’ve been salivating at the idea that Trump might get jailed are now appalled at the idea that Trump would jail his opponents. This is what happens when you start weaponizing your legal system. And before you come here to tell me that the charges against Tump are totally legitimate, I guarantee you that when Trump goes after his opponents, he’ll have no trouble finding dirt on them because all US politicians are corrupt as fuck.

    • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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      3 months ago

      Letting corrupt politicians go to jail is the opposite of weaponizing the legal system. Letting ONLY everybody but the corrupt politicians go to jail is weaponization.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆M
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        3 months ago

        If your legal system went against all corrupt politicians then you might actually have a point here. However, selectively using the legal system to go after politicians from opposing parties is what weaponizing the legal system is.

        • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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          3 months ago

          My legal system is Sweden.

          What’s selective about it? Who else has committed as much crime? Every time Republicans complain about this stuff and we look at the numbers the Republicans are always guilty of far many more infractions AND they always get away free in a higher percentage of cases. The reality is more prosecutions are needed, and you’re naive if you think otherwise.

    • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      he’ll have no trouble finding dirt on them because all US politicians are corrupt as fuck.

      And this is the problem with "both sides"ism.
      “Sure these Republican politicians are corrupt as fuck, but all politicians are corrupt as fuck. How do I know? Look at the Republicans!”

      They tried this with the whole impeachment of Joe Biden: start an investigation on bullshit and surely they’ll find something because everyone is just as corrupt as they are.

      They found nothing.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆M
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        3 months ago

        If you think that Biden or the rest of the democrats are any less corrupt than republicans then you’re well and truly lost.

        • Fridgeratr@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 months ago

          No, YOU’RE the one that’s lost my dude. They couldn’t even find ANYTHING on Biden but Trump has 91 felony counts and more trouble to come.

          No shit we’re weaponizing the legal system against Trump. He’s a CRIMINAL. That’s what it’s FOR.

            • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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              3 months ago

              Strangely none of that is about crimes being done by politicians.

              You know, the thing this entire thread is about: crimes.

              • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆M
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                3 months ago

                If you don’t think US politicians who execute the will of the oligarchy aren’t criminally corrupt then you’re childishly naive.

                • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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                  3 months ago

                  You should really stop using words when you don’t know what they mean.

                  criminally corrupt

                  What crimes are being broken?

                  The system being bad and broken doesn’t automatically make everyone criminals who should be in jail. Trump has broken laws and committed crimes. What crimes have his opponents committed to warrant being put in jail?

                  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆M
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                    3 months ago

                    Seems to me that you’re the one who doesn’t know what words mean. Can you point out a crime that Trump has actually been convicted of since you obviously know what words mean.

                    As I explained in my original comment, Trump will have no trouble finding crimes his opponents committed, the same way Trump’s own crimes have been found. What part of that are you struggling to understand?

                    Since you clearly have trouble wrapping your head around this concept I’ll try explain it to you again. US is run by corrupt people, and once somebody starts looking into them, it’s not going to be hard to find dirt. If you don’t understand why it’s going to be easy to find dirt on deeply corrupt people, then what else is there to say to you.

            • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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              3 months ago

              Where’s the study on who’s more corrupt? Corrupt people tend to do things that make people think they’re corrupt

    • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      The difference being that trump is a criminal who BROKE THE FUCKING LAW COUNTLESS TIMES. He committed multiple frauds, this is not an 'if", he did, period. He sexually assaulted at least.one person, proven, likely many more. This is not a question, this happened. He stole too secret documents from the government, refused to return them, his them and gave them away to god knows who. None of this is open for debate. Other people releasing secret government documents are in prison for life, trump is still free, last I checked.

      None of this has to do with politics, his political opponents had nothing to do with this, this is all his own fucking doing.

      Should I talk about January 6th? I recall trump tweets from the days leading up to that, I remember what he wrote, I remember preparing popcorn to watch the mayhem unfold. I remember him egging them on. EVERYONE INVOLVED IS OR IS GOING TO JAIL. Trump is still out there, still free. Nothing of this has to do with political opponents, these people were judged by the US law and jailed for their crimes.

      Nearly all of trumps cronies friends and people who worked for him are or have been jailed for proven crimes. Nothing to do with politics.

      What does trump want to do? He wants to jail his opponents because they are his opponents. Reality check: being a political opponent is NOT a crime, unless you have a dictatorship, which ding ding ding, trump literally said he wants to have. His words, not mine.

      Seriously, I don’t get it, I don’t get your mental gymnastics. You says that trump will jail them because they are criminals, but WHAT CRIMES? If they committed crimes, they’d already be in jail. These trump cronies are in jail because they committed crimes. Commit a crime, you go to jail. Political colors have nothing to do with that. You literally claim “he will find something”, are you kidding? Are you that daft?

      Come on already, stop behaving like a child.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆M
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        3 months ago

        Buddy, your legal system won’t even prosecute literal pedophiles on Epstein list, and here you are pretending that it’s going after Trump because he’s a uniquely terrible criminal. Grow up child.

    • phx@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      Oh yeah, all the people happy to see somebody gave justice for a series of criminal acts should be worried that said individual will assume power of the country and jail them as revenge. Totally a great thing.

      You sure do love the idea of a dictatorship, as long as it’s YOUR guy huh?