By Jillian Frankel
MOSINEE, Wis. — Former President Donald Trump, who makes frequent false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through rampant fraud, warned Saturday that he would try to imprison anyone who engages in "unscrupulous behavior" during this year's race.
He issued the threat on Truth Social, his social media website, and repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, accusing Democrats of "rampant Cheating and Skullduggery."
“The 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again," he wrote.
Donald Trump speaks at the fall meeting of the Fraternal Order of Police National Board of Trustees in Charlotte, N.C., on Friday.
He continued, “Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.”
The threat was one of the most wide-ranging he has made running for president after his 2020 defeat — going beyond threatening old foes and issuing warnings to those involved with the current election.
While he spent much of the 2016 campaign threatening to jail his opponent, Hillary Clinton, he tends not to go after people on the periphery, like donors and election workers.
Election workers across the country have been subject to threats, most famously Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, two election workers whose entire lives were uprooted when Trump and his allies targeted them after the 2020 election with false accusations of fraud.
In the lead-up to the 2020 election, Trump began making baseless warnings of election interference, which grew louder after he lost and culminated in a mob attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to block certification of Joe Biden’s election. He has begun making similar statements ahead of this year’s election.
He also emphasized the GOP’s focus on election integrity this cycle during a speech Saturday in Wisconsin, suggesting that if Republicans stop Democrats from cheating, he does not need to continue campaigning.
“We gotta stop the cheating. If we stop that cheating, if we don’t let them cheat, I don’t even have to campaign anymore,” Trump said. “We’re going to win by so much. In the meantime, too big to rig, too big to rig.”
Trump and his allies filed dozens of unsuccessful cases after the 2020 election in an attempt to overturn the results. Some Democrats say Republicans' new legal fights in battleground states ahead of the November election raise concerns that Republicans are trying to sow seeds doubts about the result if Trump loses.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign could not immediately be reached Saturday night to provide additional context about Trump’s plan.