Two weeks ago, in the midst of a flurry of authoritarian developments at the White House, Donald Trump called for the incarceration of a prosecutor in Georgia who tried to hold him accountable for alleged crimes after his 2020 election defeat.
“She should be put in jail,” the president said. “She’s a criminal. Fani Willis is a criminal.”
The New York Times reported a week later:
The Department of Justice has issued a subpoena for records related to the travel history of Fani T. Willis, the Georgia district attorney who charged President Trump in a sweeping election interference case, according to a federal grand jury subpoena reviewed by The New York Times. The scope of the investigation is not yet clear. Also unclear is whether Ms. Willis is the target of the inquiry and whether she will ultimately face charges.
The Times’ report, which has been independently verified by NBC News, added that the subpoena “is an indication that the Justice Department under President Trump may be investigating another one of his old foes.”
Ya think?
It was around this time two years ago when Trump was first criminally indicted in Georgia, with charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the state’s results in the 2020 presidential election. (Joe Biden narrowly carried the state at the time, to the great frustration of the Republican White House.)
The case took all kinds of twists and turns in the months that followed, and earlier this month, the Georgia Supreme Court ultimately ended Willis’ involvement in it. Nevertheless, the local Democratic prosecutor quickly climbed near the top of Trump’s list of enemies, with the president condemning her publicly hundreds of times.
It’s against this backdrop, in developments that roughly coincided with the president calling Willis a “criminal,” that Trump’s Justice Department decided to subpoena Willis’ travel records as part of a federal grand jury process.
Time will tell what, if anything, comes of the DOJ investigation, but in the meantime, let’s not lose sight of the larger pattern.
Trump’s Justice Department has already secured a criminal indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, one of the president’s favorite targets, and the president has indicated that he also wants an investigation into Comey’s successor at the bureau, former Director Chris Wray, based on Trump’s confusion about a ridiculous Jan. 6 conspiracy theory.
But we’re just getting started. Team Trump is also investigating New York Attorney General Letitia James. And Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California. And former CIA Director John Brennan. And former White House National Security Adviser John Bolton. And even former President Joe Biden. While we’re at it, let’s also not forget that the president endorsed California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s arrest, before demanding that CNN face criminal prosecution for running reports the White House didn’t like. And did I mention that, over the few months, a Democratic mayor, a Democratic U.S. House member, the staffer of a different Democratic U.S. House member, a sitting judge and a labor leader have all been criminally charged, detained or taken into custody by Trump administration officials? Because all of that happened, too. As Willis faces a DOJ subpoena, at least she has a lot of company. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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