The following is adapted from the new book “Lawless Lawfare: Tipping the Scales of Justice to Get Trump and Destroy MAGA” by Washington Times legal reporter Alex Swoyer and published by Bombardier Books.
For the Trump family, the lawfare deployed by Democrats and the Washington establishment during the past several years was deeply personal, so much so that the family is not yet ready to talk about all its negative impacts.
But Lara Trump, the wife of Eric Trump and daughter-in-law of President Trump, said it was so damaging that even financial institutions did not want to work with them, despite the Trumps being one of the wealthiest and most successful families in America.
“We all, as a family, have experienced things,” Ms. Trump, who also helped lead the Republican National Committee during the 2024 campaign, told me. “I won’t even go into the personal side of this for us, which has affected our ability to get a loan for a house or a mortgage or whatever it is. We all in the Trump family have been negatively impacted by what these people have tried to do in the name of politics.
“I mean, most people will never know the half of it because we don’t publicly talk about it,” she added. “But it is absolutely outrageous, and it really does feel like we live in another country sometimes — not America — the stuff that we have gone through.”
From the moment Mr. Trump launched his 2016 campaign, he was under scrutiny by the FBI, which ended up probing him for more than two years for allegedly working with Russia to win the 2016 campaign.
When the Russia investigation failed to land any luck for Democrats, they turned to impeaching him not once, but twice.
Eventually, civil lawsuits ensued.
But the worst of it may have been the four criminal prosecutions he faced, making history as the first time a former president ever stood trial and was convicted of a crime.
Don Jr., the eldest son of the president, said he does not think his father is bothered by being labeled a “felon” or a “convict.” He told me that, like the mug shot taken in Fulton County, Georgia, over Mr. Trump’s state prosecution there, it has all become “sort of a symbol for standing against the corrupt swamp establishment and standing with the tens of millions of everyday, commonsense Americans who supported him.”
“In a weird way, the courtroom sketches, the phony witch hunts, the failed Democrat ads, and the mug shot — it all became sort of a badge of honor, because it represents a courageous and bold stand against abuse of power. It’s a political comeback story like we’ve never seen. And no, I’m not tired of winning,” Don Jr. said.
Had the election not turned out in his favor, Lara Trump said the family expected Mr. Trump to be put in jail.
“I fully believe that had my father-in-law not won the election on November fifth, he would have spent some time in jail. That was their goal — was to put him in jail, to have the optics of that to send it out as a warning to people out there: Don’t try to go against the grain so much, because this is ultimately what could happen to you. Don’t be outspoken, because this is what could ultimately happen to you,” Ms. Trump said.
Don Jr. said the only way Democrats — including corrupt judges and prosecutors — could beat his father would have been to lock him up.
“They used the justice system as an arm of the Democratic Party, with the ultimate goal of putting their political opponent behind bars based on lies, smears, due process denial, and all the rest. It was a disgrace. But the American people also woke up to exactly what they were doing to destroy the fabric of the nation. And it’s why the Democrat Party is now a total dumpster fire, and that’s putting it mildly,” Don Jr. said.
Although the lawfare against Mr. Trump and his inner circle began with the Russia collusion investigation, which was launched during his 2016 campaign, the legal assault spread like wildfire after Jan. 6, 2021. That fateful day was responsible for two out of four of the president’s criminal prosecutions, and indictments against some of his staff, supporters, and allies like Rudolph W. Giuliani and John Eastman.
Some of Trump voters, too, who were charged and convicted in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, believe they were likewise at the epicenter of the lawfare targeting the MAGA movement.
Now that they were pardoned — and videos were released showing some of them being led through the Capitol by police officers — there is a sense of vindication among them.
One of them is Brandon Straka.
Mr. Straka garnered nearly a million social media followers between his Instagram and X accounts, as he founded the Walk Away Campaign, which is a grassroots movement launched in 2018 where former liberal voters walk away from the Democratic Party.
On Jan. 6, he was outside the U.S. Capitol during the protests where he shared a roughly eight-minute video of the scene. Although he never went inside the Capitol building — nor committed any violence — he was charged by the feds with entering and remaining on restricted grounds, impeding a law enforcement officer, and disorderly conduct.
The complaint alleged he urged people to stop the vote certification inside the Capitol.
For sharing that eight-minute video, where he stood outside an entrance to the Capitol, he was looking at roughly thirty years in prison.
Mr. Straka pleaded guilty to one count and was released on thirty-six months of probation, which included three months of home detention, as well as a $5,000 fine and $500 in restitution.
“My Jan. 6 arrest, I experienced what I called the ‘trifecta,’ which means, I was criminally charged, I was civilly sued, and I had to go against the January 6th Committee,” Mr. Straka told me when discussing the cost of lawfare. “Between those three things, I spent about $350,000 on lawyers and legal fees getting through all that, and interestingly, the worst of it was the civil case, actually. I spent more on the civil case than I did the criminal case.”
Mr. Straka said in terms of his criminal prosecution, he knew he was going to take a plea deal, but the case was continued five times, and it took a year and a half between arrest and sentencing, costing him between $100,000 and $125,000.
“I spent another $200,000 on the civil case. That was a real nightmare,” he told me.
The civil suit involved a liberal-funded group that represented roughly half a dozen Black and brown Capitol police officers that sued Straka and more than a dozen others under the Ku Klux Klan Act, which is aimed at preventing the deprivation of civil rights of minorities.
He was eventually released from the lawsuit on procedural and jurisdictional grounds, but that took two years. He said the costliest part of the lawsuit was the discovery; however, through the discovery process it was uncovered that none of the officers suing him were on the side of the Capitol where he was on Jan. 6 — or at the time he was there.
Don Jr. said to avoid lawfare from happening again to his father — or any politician — the right people have to be in charge.
“It starts with personnel. People are policy. And we’re delivering on that in this second term. Like I’ve said, my role in the transition was to keep out the bad apples,” he said. “The Justice Department, the FBI, and the intelligence agencies shouldn’t be making decisions whether to investigate or prosecute someone based on politics. It should be based on facts and the rule of law. Democrats used to at least pretend to believe in that. And we protect our due process and restore credibility to the legal system by making sure there is accountability for those who abuse that power — and by putting people in these positions who are committed to real reform, and not endless phony investigations.”
