Venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale argued on CNN that the Justice Department has been weaponized against Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
When asked why he co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed with Jeb Bush on this topic, given Bush opposes Trump, Lonsdale said though he’s never supported Trump financially, he’s concerned about government overreach as he sees it being weaponized against his friend Elon Musk.
“My next guest co-authored this Wall Street Journal op-ed with Jeb Bush under the heading, Elon Musk and Donald Trump Cases Imperil the Rule of Law,” Michael Smerconish said.
“I’m curious your co-author, Jeb Bush is no fan of Donald Trump. Why did he feel compelled to weigh in on this?”
Lonsdale, who says he discussed this with non-Trump supporting business friends, believes both Trump and Musk’s cases exemplify an abusive government penalizing enemies in disproportionate ways with fines like $400 million for actions where no victims exist.
“I’ve never given Donald Trump a cent either. I love America. I’ve been a lot of businesses in this country. I love building, love investing here. And this is very scary. I see the government weaponized against my friend Elon Musk. Listen, I don’t love Donald Trump, but I was just with a bunch of my business friends who don’t love them either. All of them thanked me for writing this,” Lonsdale said.
“I don’t think Trump necessarily handled this perfectly. It’s not a $400,000,000 fine. It’s like basically what happens in these countries when you have a regime takeover that’s going after its enemies, as you weaponize it and you penalize people in ridiculous ways. This is an obvious example of that,” he said.
He stated such punitive measures against businesses demonstrate clear weaponization that threatens the rule of law.
Lonsdale later concluded this is not how the country is meant to function.
“This is why it’s scary to my friends who do business, who don’t even like Trump because it’s a $400,000,000 fine for something where there’s no victims is obviously a weaponization of government and everyone knows on its face.”
“They know that penalizing that much in business is clearly weaponization,” he said.
“That’s not how the country is supposed to work,” Lonsdale added.
