Trump calls for protests if prosecutors ‘do anything illegal’ in targeting him

Former President Trump on Saturday warned of “the biggest protest we have ever had” in the United States if prosecutors “do anything illegal” in their investigations into him and his businesses. 

Speaking at a rally in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday, Trump spoke about the local and federal probes targeting his businesses and political activities, including lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. 

“If these radical, vicious racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had … in Washington, D.C, in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt,” Trump told the crowd of his supporters. 

Trump accused New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) of launching a political attack against him. James claimed in a court filing last week that her office discovered evidence of Trump’s company using “fraudulent or misleading” valuations of its golf clubs, skyscrapers and other property to secure loans and tax benefits. 

His mention of Atlanta apparently refers to an investigation being led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis into whether Trump and others acted criminally when trying to pressure Georgia officials into overturning President Biden’s win in the 2020 election. 

Trump also made headlines at the rally by saying that if he ran for reelection and won, he would pardon all of the Jan. 6 rioters because he believes they have been treated unfairly. 

“If I run and I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly,” Trump told the crowd. “We will treat them fairly, and if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.”

In an appearance on CBS’s “Face The Nation” on Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told host Margaret Brennan that he thought Trump’s remarks were “inappropriate.”

“I think it’s inappropriate. … I don’t want to do anything that would make this more likely in the future,” Graham told Brennan of the Capitol attack.