signalmankenneth
Verified User
I have a question, what if Trump loses the election will he flee the country to avoid prosecution and prison?!!
Some are considering leaving the country if Trump returns to the White House or saving money to handle the expected legal costs.
WASHINGTON — If Donald Trump stood no chance of becoming president again, the Vindman family would be planning a milestone birthday celebration right now.
Alexander Vindman’s wife, Rachel, turns 50 next month. But rather than spend money on a party, she wants to save it in case Trump returns to the White House and tries to retaliate against her husband for being a key witness in Trump’s first impeachment, Alexander Vindman said in an interview. The family might need the money in case they have to flee the country.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” said Vindman, a national security official in Trump’s White House who was ousted in 2020 after Trump’s acquittal, but “that’s an indicator of the level of concern that she’s had.”
The Vindmans aren’t alone. Interviews with more than a dozen people who’ve run afoul of Trump for various reasons reveal deep worry among many that he will seek revenge if he wins another term. They are considering ways to protect themselves should he use the office’s vast powers to punish them over grievances that he’s been nursing.
Fearful of being hounded by investigators, prosecuted or stripped of their livelihoods, some are planning to leave the country if Trump is sworn in. Others are consulting attorneys or setting aside money to fight back in case they’re targeted either by Trump’s administration or by his Republican allies in Congress.
A natural assumption would be that the targets of Trump’s ire are Democrats or political rivals who tried to beat him at the ballot box. But it’s not quite so simple. History shows there are all sorts of ways to leave Trump aggrieved, and some who feel they’re in jeopardy worked directly with him or believed in his agenda. Once snugly inside Trump’s orbit, they may have provoked him by doing their jobs as they understood them or speaking candidly about what they considered his failings.
Now they’re outside and largely on their own.
Stephanie Grisham, a former press secretary in Trump’s White House, wrote a book about her experience and has become a sharp critic of the former president’s.
She said that she and some of her former colleagues are part of a text chain in which, in a bit of gallows humor, they’ve discussed moving to countries without extradition treaties in the event Trump comes back.
“It’s terrifying,” she said.
Speaking privately to her mother once about her fears, Grisham said her mother tried to reassure her that Trump wouldn’t have time for vengeance if he returns. “I’m like, ‘OK, Mom. You don’t know him,’” Grisham recounted in an interview.
“I’ve been saving money and making other arrangements” should Trump regain power, she said.
‘Indict them’
Vengeance has been an undercurrent of Trump’s latest campaign. He told conservative activists last year that “for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
He claims that President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats have plotted to undermine his candidacy through a string of court cases. He is livid at assorted judges, prosecutors and witnesses. He’s annoyed by former aides who’ve questioned his competence. And if he returns to office, Trump has suggested that he’d have payback in mind.
He gave an interview with Univision in November in which he said the “weaponization” of justice “could certainly happen in reverse.”
“If I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ Mostly, they would be out of business,” he said.
Trump has a habit of saying things and then backtracking. At a Fox News town hall last month, he said that as president, he wouldn’t have time for retribution.
Trump’s administration’s actions are sufficient grounds for concern, his critics say. Trump didn’t need to order retaliatory measures; his staff would infer what he wanted done.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry was among those who wound up in Trump’s crosshairs.
In April 2019, Trump called for Kerry to be prosecuted over conversations he’d had with Iranian officials, under an 18th-century law called the Logan Act, which bars private citizens from negotiating with other countries.
Kerry countered that it was commonplace for ex-foreign policy officials to talk to counterparts and that he had not interfered with Trump’s foreign policy. The U.S. attorney in New York’s Southern District, Geoffrey Berman, agreed that Kerry had broken no laws.
In his book “Holding the Line,” Berman wrote that the Justice Department headquarters pressured his office to pursue an investigation into Kerry. In April 2019, Justice Department officials leaned on Berman’s staff within hours of Trump tweeting about Kerry and the Logan Act, he wrote.
“No one needed to talk to Trump to know what he wanted,” Berman wrote. “You could read his tweets.”
‘Emboldened, vindictive and lawless’
Berman stood fast and Kerry was never charged. But in a second term, having learned lessons from the first, Trump may stock the government with more pliable officials eager to do his bidding, detractors say.
Mark Zaid is an attorney who represented the whistleblower — who remains anonymous to this day — in Trump’s first impeachment. Trump was ultimately acquitted by the Senate over accusations that he had pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate Biden ahead of the 2020 election. At a rally in 2019, Trump called Zaid a “sleazeball,” citing some anti-Trump tweets he had posted two years earlier.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/donald-trump-retribution-fear-rcna139497
Some are considering leaving the country if Trump returns to the White House or saving money to handle the expected legal costs.
WASHINGTON — If Donald Trump stood no chance of becoming president again, the Vindman family would be planning a milestone birthday celebration right now.
Alexander Vindman’s wife, Rachel, turns 50 next month. But rather than spend money on a party, she wants to save it in case Trump returns to the White House and tries to retaliate against her husband for being a key witness in Trump’s first impeachment, Alexander Vindman said in an interview. The family might need the money in case they have to flee the country.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” said Vindman, a national security official in Trump’s White House who was ousted in 2020 after Trump’s acquittal, but “that’s an indicator of the level of concern that she’s had.”
The Vindmans aren’t alone. Interviews with more than a dozen people who’ve run afoul of Trump for various reasons reveal deep worry among many that he will seek revenge if he wins another term. They are considering ways to protect themselves should he use the office’s vast powers to punish them over grievances that he’s been nursing.
Fearful of being hounded by investigators, prosecuted or stripped of their livelihoods, some are planning to leave the country if Trump is sworn in. Others are consulting attorneys or setting aside money to fight back in case they’re targeted either by Trump’s administration or by his Republican allies in Congress.
A natural assumption would be that the targets of Trump’s ire are Democrats or political rivals who tried to beat him at the ballot box. But it’s not quite so simple. History shows there are all sorts of ways to leave Trump aggrieved, and some who feel they’re in jeopardy worked directly with him or believed in his agenda. Once snugly inside Trump’s orbit, they may have provoked him by doing their jobs as they understood them or speaking candidly about what they considered his failings.
Now they’re outside and largely on their own.
Stephanie Grisham, a former press secretary in Trump’s White House, wrote a book about her experience and has become a sharp critic of the former president’s.
She said that she and some of her former colleagues are part of a text chain in which, in a bit of gallows humor, they’ve discussed moving to countries without extradition treaties in the event Trump comes back.
“It’s terrifying,” she said.
Speaking privately to her mother once about her fears, Grisham said her mother tried to reassure her that Trump wouldn’t have time for vengeance if he returns. “I’m like, ‘OK, Mom. You don’t know him,’” Grisham recounted in an interview.
“I’ve been saving money and making other arrangements” should Trump regain power, she said.
‘Indict them’
Vengeance has been an undercurrent of Trump’s latest campaign. He told conservative activists last year that “for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
He claims that President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats have plotted to undermine his candidacy through a string of court cases. He is livid at assorted judges, prosecutors and witnesses. He’s annoyed by former aides who’ve questioned his competence. And if he returns to office, Trump has suggested that he’d have payback in mind.
He gave an interview with Univision in November in which he said the “weaponization” of justice “could certainly happen in reverse.”
“If I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ Mostly, they would be out of business,” he said.
Trump has a habit of saying things and then backtracking. At a Fox News town hall last month, he said that as president, he wouldn’t have time for retribution.
Trump’s administration’s actions are sufficient grounds for concern, his critics say. Trump didn’t need to order retaliatory measures; his staff would infer what he wanted done.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry was among those who wound up in Trump’s crosshairs.
In April 2019, Trump called for Kerry to be prosecuted over conversations he’d had with Iranian officials, under an 18th-century law called the Logan Act, which bars private citizens from negotiating with other countries.
Kerry countered that it was commonplace for ex-foreign policy officials to talk to counterparts and that he had not interfered with Trump’s foreign policy. The U.S. attorney in New York’s Southern District, Geoffrey Berman, agreed that Kerry had broken no laws.
In his book “Holding the Line,” Berman wrote that the Justice Department headquarters pressured his office to pursue an investigation into Kerry. In April 2019, Justice Department officials leaned on Berman’s staff within hours of Trump tweeting about Kerry and the Logan Act, he wrote.
“No one needed to talk to Trump to know what he wanted,” Berman wrote. “You could read his tweets.”
‘Emboldened, vindictive and lawless’
Berman stood fast and Kerry was never charged. But in a second term, having learned lessons from the first, Trump may stock the government with more pliable officials eager to do his bidding, detractors say.
Mark Zaid is an attorney who represented the whistleblower — who remains anonymous to this day — in Trump’s first impeachment. Trump was ultimately acquitted by the Senate over accusations that he had pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate Biden ahead of the 2020 election. At a rally in 2019, Trump called Zaid a “sleazeball,” citing some anti-Trump tweets he had posted two years earlier.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/donald-trump-retribution-fear-rcna139497
