Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday that anyone who attempted to disrupt and takedown President Trump before, during and after his first term should “pay a price.”
The South Carolina Republican’s comments came two days after Mr. Trump told Justice Department employees to expose past corruption and abuse at the department.
The president recently signed executive orders stripping security clearances of attorneys at three law firms: Covington & Burling, Paul Weiss and Perkins Coie.
Mr. Graham, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he thought the federal criminal case led by Special Counsel Jack Smith was “politically motivated” against Mr. Trump.
Mr. Graham described as “a hoax” the investigation into whether Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign coordinated with Russia, adding that “a lot of people should have gone to jail, and they didn’t.”
“The Steele Dossier was based on lies and falsehoods coming from a source that said he never meant it to be used in the fashion it was used,” he said. “People who engage in trying to destroy President Trump, I don’t mind him going after them in a lawful way.”
Asked if it was right for the president to target private businesses because of work done by those firms, Mr. Graham responded, “Private business aided government power in a fashion to destroy Donald Trump’s life … I believe that if these people involved pay a price, they got nobody but themselves to blame.”
