Trump wants to use the DOJ to probe high-profile critics if he wins a second term in 2024, report says
AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack
- Former President Trump is mapping out ways to probe high-profile critics in a potential second term, per WaPo.
- Trump reportedly wants to see the DOJ investigate Bill Barr, John Kelly, Mark Milley, and Ty Cobb.
- The set of proposals from Trump allies have been called "Project 2025," according to WaPo.
Former President Donald Trump and his associates have begun outlining proposals for utilizing the federal government to target some of the ex-president's highest-profile critics should he secure a second term next year, according to The Washington Post.
Trump — the frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary who has continually railed against his loss to now-President Joe Biden in the 2020 election — has privately told advisors and close allies this year that he'd like to see the Department of Justice probe individuals who railed against his first administration, per the Post.
Several of the names that were brought up by Trump — according to individuals who remained anonymous in the report — include former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, former US Attorney General Bill Barr, ex-Trump administration attorney Ty Cobb, and Gen. Mark Milley, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Trump has also floated the prosecutions of individuals at the FBI and the Department of Justice, which he has railed against as he faces 91 felony charges across four criminal cases.
Per the Post, Trump's associates are also mapping out ways to use the Insurrection Act at the start of a potential second term, which would give him the ability to use military forces to quell civil unrest.
Trump's associates have also been devising ways to toss aside long-standing policies to block criminal prosecutions from being influenced by politics. A defining hallmark of the Justice Department is its independence from the White House, so any attempt to use the department to enact political vengeance would ring major alarm bells in Washington.
The set of plans being unofficially mapped out has been called "Project 2025," per The Post.
Critics of the plans have blasted the implications of the far-reaching proposals.
"It would resemble a banana republic if people came into office and started going after their opponents willy-nilly," University of Virginia School of Law professor Saikrishna Prakash told the Post. "It's hardly something we should aspire to."
After Kelly left the White House, he confirmed several allegations leveled against Trump in 2020, including that the then-president had spoken negatively about veterans who were killed in combat.
Trump clashed with Barr over the 2020 presidential election results, with the ex-attorney general arguing that he could not verify any mass voter fraud that year. The former president also said he had "lost total confidence" in Milley while in office.
Cobb earlier this year told CNN that Trump "will go to jail" over his handling of classified documents which were retrieved from his Mar-a-Lago estate during a high-profile FBI search in August 2022.
Insider reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.