Sen. Eric Schmitt said Sunday that President-elect Donald Trump should fire anyone in the Justice Department who participated in the criminal cases against him.
The Missouri Republican said the charges against the former president were politically motivated persecution and thus actionable.
“First and foremost, the people involved with this should be fired immediately,” Mr. Schmitt, Missouri Republican, said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday.
“Anybody [who was] 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,” he said.
Mr. Trump has already said that special counsel Jack Smith — who oversees the criminal cases against the president-elect out of Washington and Florida — would be gone within seconds of him taking office.
“It’s so easy. I would fire him within two seconds,” Mr. Trump said before the election. “He’ll be one of the first things addressed.”
SEE ALSO: Lankford: We don’t know ‘one way or another’ how DOJ will act with political interference
Mr. Trump still faces two criminal cases in state courts in Georgia and New York, over which the president has no authority. But both cases are on hold.
Despite being convicted in his criminal hush money case overseen by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the sentencing has been postponed indefinitely. And charges of racketeering related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 Georgia election result have been delayed by conflict-of-interest issues involving Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Mr. Smith has paused moving forward with his appeal of the Florida classified documents case being dismissed. He also moved to halt the 2020 election interference case in Washington.
Mr. Schmitt, who served as Missouri’s attorney general before winning election to the Senate, told host Kristen Welker that the cases “all fell apart under the weight of the law.”
“I do think there needs to be accountability,” he said of the Justice Department. “I think that getting it back to crime-fighting is important, but there has to be accountability for these kinds of abuses.”
During the presidential campaign, Democrats often said Mr. Trump would use the Justice Department to go after his political enemies, much like he says the department did to him during the Biden administration.
SEE ALSO: Trump’s first days as president-elect are positive, poll finds
Sen. James Lankford said Sunday that no one knows whether Mr. Trump will let the Justice Department operate without political interference and pressure, though he said the president and attorney general have the right and duty to set priorities and goals.
“I don’t think we know that one way or the other. I think President Trump does want people that are loyal to him,” the Oklahoma Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He wants to make sure that the people that are around him in the Cabinet are at least directionally the right direction.”
Mr. Trump’s first pick for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, withdrew his nomination last week amid turmoil over a House Ethics Committee report on allegations of sex with minors and illicit drug use. His second pick, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, was one of his defense lawyers during his first impeachment trial.
Mr. Lankford said the position of attorney general is supposed to be “America’s lawyer,” not the president’s.
“But it’s also someone that the president wants to know is heading the same direction that they are, because it’s very important. When you talk about the attorney general, they’re the key component of the prosecution of federal crimes around the country,” he said. “Every single U.S. attorney around the country works for them and with them.”
“So it is very important that we get this role right and that they’re actually focused on diminishing crime in America and make sure we’re getting good prosecutions,” he said.
He also said it would be fair for Ms. Bondi to “step in and say, ’we’re not going to allow someone to try to undercut the president of the United States in this Department of Justice.’”
“You have got to actually be balanced and about justice, not about attacking the president,” he said.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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