CNN
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Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed the New York convictions and again signaled his intention to prosecute political opponents if re-elected.
“It’s a very frightening path that they’re leading us down, and it’s very possible that the same thing will happen to them,” Trump said in an interview with Newsmax.
Trump was convicted last week on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and faces possible prison time.
But he first suggested he might weaponize the Justice Department to go after political opponents more than a year before he was first indicted. He has said that if re-elected, he would appoint a special counsel to investigate President Joe Biden and his family, and has asserted multiple times that he believes he is justified in doing so because Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigation involving Trump.
“This is so terrible. It’s such a terrible precedent for our country. Is the next president going to do the same to them? That’s the real question,” he told Newsmax.
The former president remains indicted on three other criminal counts and denies any wrongdoing.
Trump, who has repeatedly called for his 2016 Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton to be jailed even though she has never been charged with a crime, said on Tuesday it would be “terrible” if Clinton were jailed. In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump falsely claimed he was not calling for Clinton to be jailed.
“I got praise from a lot of people. Some of them said I should have done it, and it would have been very easy to do, but I thought it would have set a terrible precedent for our country,” Trump said.
Trump continued, “The first lady and the former secretary of state, when you think about it, wouldn’t it be a terrible thing to put a former secretary of state, a first lady, in jail? It’s a terrible thing, but that’s what they want to do.”
While Trump’s advisers continue to downplay the possibility that he would be convicted and sentenced to prison, the president has told allies that he believes he could face prison.
Trump’s sentencing trial is set for July 11 after a Manhattan jury found him guilty last week of 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors have accused Trump of engaging in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election and an illegal scheme to conceal negative information, including concealing hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump’s sentence will be decided by Judge Juan Marchand and could include prison time or probation.
Trump has told multiple people in recent days that he believes he could end up in prison but that he’s “OK” about it, according to two sources briefed on the conversations.
Trump’s lawyers say they believe his age, lack of a criminal record and contributions to the community give them a strong argument against a prison sentence.
“We’re not going to send him to prison,” one campaign adviser told CNN.
Earlier this week, Republican National Committee co-chair Michael Whatley said the party was preparing for a scenario in which Trump would speak from prison at the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to kick off in Milwaukee on July 15, just four days after Trump’s scheduled sentencing.
“We’re working on that right now,” Whatley told Newsmax. “I’ll be in Milwaukee this week and we’ll have a series of conversations. But we do expect Donald Trump to be in Milwaukee and able to accept the nomination. If he’s not able to accept it, we’ll take the necessary steps.”
Trump aides were unhappy with how Whatley’s remarks were interpreted, two sources told CNN.
The former president’s first campaign event since his conviction will be in Phoenix on Thursday, when he will take part in a town hall hosted by the right-wing nonprofit group Turning Point Action.
This story has been updated with additional reports.
