Senator Lindsey Graham drew a comparison between the investigation of former President Donald J. Trump and a decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over using a private server.
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This article is part of our Midterms 2022 Daily Briefing
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has moved from a fierce critic of former President Donald J. Trump to a loyal companion.
Senator Lindsey Graham’s prediction on Sunday that a prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump would lead to “riots in the streets” added an element of menace to the fraught decisions facing Justice Department officials as they consider next steps in the investigation of Mr. Trump’s handling of classified material.
Mr. Graham, a South Carolina Republican who moved from a fierce critic of Mr. Trump to a loyal companion, appeared on Fox News, drawing a comparison between the investigation of Mr. Trump and the Justice Department’s decision in 2016 not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for using a private server for State Department communications. In 2019, a State Department inquiry into the server concluded, “There was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.”
“If they try to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information after Hillary Clinton set up a server in her basement, there literally will be riots in the street. I worry about our country,” he said.
He also said the intensifying investigation into the highly classified documents stored at Mr. Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, contrasted with the hands-off attitude that he said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had taken toward President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The Justice Department has been weighing whether to charge Hunter Biden over possible tax and foreign lobbying violations.
“I love the law,” he said. “I’ve never been more worried about the law in politics as I am right now.”
A spokesman for Mr. Graham, Kevin Bishop, emphasized on Monday that the senator was making a prediction, not a threat.
In Charleston on Monday, Mr. Graham sought to clarify his remarks. He again raised Ms. Clinton, saying, “America cannot live with this kind of double standard. I thought what she did was bad, but she got a pass at the end of the day.” He added, “I reject violence. I’m not calling for violence.” But, he said, “the bottom line is there will be a lot of upset people” if Mr. Trump is charged.
Still, raising the prospect of rioting came as Trump supporters’ threats against law enforcement have crescendoed. One such supporter was killed earlier this month when he tried to breach the F.B.I.’s office in Cincinnati. Threats have rained down on the judge involved in approving the search warrant of Mar-a-Lago, Bruce E. Reinhart. And the Justice Department warned last week that unless the affidavit seeking the search warrant was heavily redacted, it, too, would prompt violent threats or worse against cooperating witnesses.
And Mr. Trump amplified Mr. Graham’s comments by posting them on his own social network, Truth Social.
Source: nytimes.com
