President Trump retweeted a photo illustration of several of his political adversaries and critics behind bars “for treason,” including special counsel Robert Mueller, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, former President Barack Obama and his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton.
Its caption: “Now that Russia collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin?”
— The Trump Train ??? (@The_Trump_Train) November 28, 2018
The original tweet was posted by an account called The_Trump_Train. The president retweeted it on Wednesday, minutes after posting yet another round of criticism for the media and Mueller’s Russia investigation.
“While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief,” he wrote. “This is our Joseph McCarthy Era!”
While the disgusting Fake News is doing everything within their power not to report it that way, at least 3 major players are intimating that the Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie about facts & they will get relief. This is our Joseph McCarthy Era!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2018
Trump has ratcheted up his already-ratcheted critiques for the media and Mueller’s inquiry in recent days, as Mueller appears to be connecting dots closer to the president himself. Before Thanksgiving, Trump learned that a draft indictment for conspiracy theorist and Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi included his name, infuriating him, NBC News reported.
On Monday, Mueller announced that he was canceling the plea deal for Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, saying he had lied to the government. Almost immediately, reports surfaced that Manafort had been double-dealing, informing the president’s lawyers about goings-on in the Mueller investigation.
Also on Monday, the Guardian reported that Manafort had met with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in 2013 and 2015. If true, the story illustrates a direct link between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign.
Last night, NBC News reported that Mueller has emails that show Corsi and Trump supporter Roger Stone knew in advance about Wikileaks‘ planned dump of Hillary Clinton’s emails, the “October surprise” that stalled her momentum in the 2016 election.
Political observers predicted that Trump would fire Rosenstein, who was overseeing Mueller’s investigation, after the midterm elections. Instead, Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replaced him on an acting basis with Matthew Whitaker, a Trump loyalist who has called the Russia inquiry “a witch hunt.” Whitaker is now Mueller’s de facto supervisor.
Brian Klaas, an American political scientist at University College London, said that “pushing for political rivals to be jailed” was an escalation in Trump’s “dangerously authoritarian behavior.”
“Simply for properly doing his job, the president is pushing the message that Rosenstein should be in jail,” Klass told the UK Independent. “It’s extremely dangerous for the foundations of American democracy to politicize rule of law like this.”
