'Actual incitement': Former DOJ official warns on Trump’s latest post

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14 November 2023

A former top U.S. Dept. of Justice official issued a warning on one of Donald Trump’s latest social media posts, saying it is an “actual incitement to break the law,” and “it greatly endangers” the judge and attorney general in his New York State civil business fraud case.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump reposted another user’s post that reads, in all-caps: “My fantasy,” and then: “I would like to see Lititia [sic] James and Judge Engoron placed under citizens arrest for blatant election interference and harassment.”

Harry Litman, who also served as a U.S. Attorney, and teaches law, wrote Tuesday morning: “Sometimes [Trump] says incendiary things that his followers act on, as in ‘will be wild.’ This is an actual incitement to break the law and it greatly endangers the judge and AG.”

Citing MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin, MSNBC executive producer Kyle Griffin added: “New York law only allows for a citizen’s arrest when a person has ‘in fact’ committed a felony in the presence of that citizen.”

The Messenger’s senior legal correspondent, Adam Klasfeld, commenting on the post wrote:

“1) Engoron said his ‘chambers have been inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages’ since trial began. 2) His gag order currently doesn’t prevent Trump from attacking him anyway.”

Attorney Jonathan Turley declares the call for a citizen’s arrest, “a dangerous (and uninformed) suggestion that some could easily take seriously. That is particularly the case after the reckless attacks of Trump on critics as ‘vermin‘ and pledging to go after them if reelected.”

“Just in case anyone is taking such a statement as more than a fantasy,” Turley adds, “there is no basis for a citizen’s arrest and such an effort to physically hold either the judge or the attorney general would most certainly constitute a criminal act.”

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