Trump threatens lawyers, donors and election officials with jail time for ‘unscrupulous behavior’

MOSINEE, Wis. — Former President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen by widespread fraud, warned Saturday that he would seek to jail anyone who engages in “unscrupulous behavior” in the 2024 election results.

The threat came in a post on Truth Social, his social media site, and repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, accusing Democrats of “widespread cheating and deceit.”

“The 2024 election, where voting has just begun, will be subject to the utmost professional oversight and, WHEN I WIN, those who CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including lengthy prison sentences so that this perversion of justice never happens again,” he wrote.

He continued: “Please beware, this legal exposure extends to lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters and corrupt election officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, arrested and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never before seen in our country.”

The threat is one of the broadest he has made in his presidential campaign after his 2020 defeat, going beyond threats against old enemies and warnings to those involved in the ongoing election.

Although he spent much of the 2016 campaign threatening to jail his opponent Hillary Clinton, he tends not to go after peripheral figures, like donors and election workers.

Across the country, election workers have faced threats, including Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, two election workers whose entire lives were upended when Trump and his allies targeted them after the 2020 election with false claims of fraud.

In the run-up to the 2020 election, Trump began issuing baseless warnings about election interference, which escalated after his defeat and culminated in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block the certification of Biden’s election. He began making similar claims in the run-up to the 2024 election.

He also highlighted the GOP’s emphasis on election integrity this cycle during a speech Saturday in Wisconsin, suggesting that if Republicans stop Democrats from cheating, he doesn’t need to continue his campaign.

“We have to stop the cheating. If we stop this cheating, if we don’t let them cheat, I won’t even have to campaign anymore,” Trump said. “We’re going to win by a margin. In the meantime, too big to rig, too big to rig.”

After the 2020 election, Donald Trump and his allies filed dozens of lawsuits to try to overturn the results, but to no avail. Some Democrats say the renewed legal battles by Republicans in key states ahead of the November election raise concerns that Republicans will try to sow doubt about the outcome if Donald Trump loses.

A Trump campaign spokesperson could not immediately be reached Saturday evening to provide additional context regarding Trump’s plan.