https://www.yahoo.com/news/doj-fbi-officials-reach-lawyers-120000487.html

Multiple current and former senior Justice Department and FBI officials have begun reaching out to lawyers in anticipation of being criminally investigated by the Trump administration, according to three people with knowledge of their deliberations.

Following Trump’s decisive election victory, many Justice Department officials and career staffers were already nervous about the possibility that they would be targeted by Trump loyalists, particularly members of Congress. But the selection of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, a firebrand Trump ally who was the subject of a recent FBI investigation, to lead the department has sharply increased the sense of alarm, the sources said.

“Everything we did was aboveboard,” said a former senior FBI official who has started contacting lawyers because he expects to be prosecuted himself. “But this is a different world.”

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of becoming even more of a target, doesn’t believe any attempt to prosecute him will be successful. Judges and juries have the power to throw out cases or find defendants innocent if they deem prosecutions to be baseless.

But like many other current and former Justice Department officials, he is bracing for a potentially long and costly legal battle, as well as the possibility of protracted congressional investigations, after Trump takes office in January.

⬆️ Exactly what they put Trump through.

Career FBI employees are especially vulnerable, the official added. Since they make less money than they would in the private sector, they rely on the pensions they receive after 20 years.

“Agents have to do 20 years,” the former senior FBI official said. “These people don’t have options.”

…Trump and his supporters have consistently argued that all of the criminal investigations against him have been politically motivated, and that Justice Department and FBI officials deserve to be prosecuted…

Shock inside the DOJ

Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, were shocked by Trump’s decisive election win. For the last four years, Garland has argued that strictly following post-Watergate norms that require the Justice Department to work in a nonpartisan manner in criminal investigations would restore public trust in the Justice Department.

LOL.

Instead, some career Justice Department officials wept after the election, dismayed by the fact that large numbers of Americans apparently continue to believe Trump’s claims that the department is a cesspool of corruption.

Justice Department and FBI officials say that the Trump investigations were carried out properly. Justice Department prosecutors secured indictments from federal grand juries against Trump for his mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to reverse the 2020 election results.

They expressed bafflement at what criminal charge could be brought against them as a result. “There’s no crime,” said a current law enforcement official. “What’s the crime?”

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