Trump Retribution Targets Like Liz Cheney Should Leave the Country for Awhile After Inauguration, Top National Security Lawyer Says
A well-known national security lawyer believes those who may be targets of President-elect Donald Trump’s retribution would do well to skip town in the days after the inauguration — at least for a little while.
In an interview with Politico published Monday, Mark Zaid — a prominent national security attorney who has represented numerous government whistleblowers — said that he has personally advised people who might be in Trump’s sights to “take a vacation” abroad in late January for precautionary reasons.
“There are a small number of people who I have told, ‘Look, you should take a vacation outside of the country around the time of inauguration, just to see what happens. Just go on a routine vacation and see what plays out come Jan. 20, 21st, 22nd,'” Zaid said. “By that time, we’ll know who’s going to be [in senior administration roles] and whether they will be more fundamentalist about this issue than the general politician who’s appointed into a position that requires Senate confirmation.”
Zaid does not believe that current members of Congress will ultimately land on Trump’s revenge list because Congressional Republicans “are not going to want to see that.” But Zaid named others who are not currently elected office holders who might want to book flights.
“Look, you don’t have to be an expert in the intelligence community to know who would face things — people like John Brennan, Jim Clapper, maybe Liz Cheney,” Zaid said.
Trump’s pick for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, is undoubtedly one signal that the president-elect intends to go after his political enemies. Zaid named another potential Trump official as someone who might carry out a retribution agenda, and argued “it would be very easy to go after” people who do not hold “immunized positions.”
“So just think about a situation where the new CIA director could be someone like Kash Patel who says, ‘Hey, by the way, John Brennan, when you appeared on CNN on Oct. 29, 2023, what you said was classified and you are going to be prosecuted under the Espionage Act,'” Zaid said. “Is that going to happen? I have no idea. I would hope not, but depending on who is put into power in the Justice Department, in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, at the CIA, as the Director of National Intelligence — the law would allow that.”