Sen. Eric Schmitt said Sunday that the Department of Justice employees behind the investigations into Donald Trump “should be fired immediately.” While speaking on “Meet the Press,” Schmitt added, “And anybody part of this, this effort to keep President Trump off the ballot and to throw him in jail for the rest of his life because they didn’t like his politics, and who continue to cast him as a quote, unquote threat to democracy, was wrong, and so we’ll see where that goes.”
The cases against Trump “all fell apart under the weight of the law,” Schmitt continued, and “there has to be accountability for these kinds of abuses.”
Kristen Welker pushed Schmitt to describe what he meant about accountability. “I think accountability means first and foremost the people involved in this should be fired immediately,” he explained. “And anybody part of this effort to keep President Trump off the ballot and to throw him in jail for the rest of his life because they didn’t like his politics and to continue to cast him as a quote/unquote threat to democracy was wrong.”
“But I just don’t think in this country, unless we want to be a banana republic, I don’t want to see that happen, you can’t have the Justice Department abused in this way,” he added.
Schmitt also explained to Welker that he supports Pam Bondi, Trump’s new nominee for attorney general. “She’s a very serious person, and I think she’s seen the weaponization – everybody’s seen this weaponization of the Justice Department over the last four years,” he said.
“It really is a tragedy for a once respected agency that has gone after Catholics. It’s gone after parents who showed up to school board meetings under the auspices of the Patriot Act — this is in the United States of America, and then clearly weaponized that department – Joe Biden did, and Merrick Garland, to go after their chief political opponent.”
“And I’ll tell you Kristen, the arc of that story is really terrifying if you care about the republic. After the midterms, Joe Biden said that there was no way President Trump would ever be back in the White House,” Schmitt continued. “After that speech, these zombie cases were resurrected. The number three person from DOJ went to New York and you had the Alvin Bragg case. The number two prosecutor in Atlanta went to the White House and coordinated. You saw all these cases resurrected.”
Trump repeatedly went after the Justice Department throughout his presidential campaign, often by way of incoherent rants on Truth Social.
On Nov. 6, the Justice Department announced plans to drop the criminal cases against Trump, according to multiple media reports relying on information from unnamed sources. Those sources also indicated the DOJ now have no room to maneuver, and see no point in carrying on.
You can watch Schiff’s interview on “Meet the Press” in the video above.
