A key Trump ally says a federal grand jury has been empaneled in Florida that will begin meeting in January to investigate what he calls a decade-long conspiracy against President Donald Trump.
In a series of interviews with conservative podcasters over the last week, conservative attorney Mike Davis — a close friend and informal adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top Trump administration officials — has claimed that the grand jury will consider whether to bring criminal charges against top Democratic figures that Davis claims have colluded over the last decade to impede Trump, beginning with the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election through the criminal cases against the president.
“I’ve been publicly calling for this for three years. I’m going to make damn sure that these lawfare Democrats go to prison during the four years of President Trump’s second term,” Davis told conservative commentator Benny Johnson on Friday.
While Davis does not hold a government position, court documents confirm that a federal judge last month ordered a grand jury to be empaneled in Fort Pierce, Florida, beginning in January at the request of the Trump administration.
A representative of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the purpose of the grand jury.
A conservative lawyer who helped shepherd Trump’s nominees through the Supreme Court confirmation process, Davis now runs the Article III Project, an organization that describes itself as devoted to helping “fight leftist lawfare to defend the rule of law.”
Trump has recently called for the prosecution of some of the same officials accused by Davis of using lawfare to target him.
“They cheated and rigged the 2020 Presidential Election,” Trump wrote on social media Saturday. “These Radical Left Lunatics should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!”
Trump has not yet commented on Davis’ remarks on the conservative podcasts.
In an interview on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Davis said his “buddy” Jason Quiñones — the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida — moved to empanel the grand jury after Davis “pushed very hard” to investigate what he says is a conspiracy against Trump.
Davis has suggested that top officials, including former Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, FBI Director Chris Wray and Special Counsel Jack Smith should be compelled to testify before the grand jury to answer questions about what Davis says is the politicized use of the legal system.
Quiñones and representatives from the Southern District of Florida did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
Davis has argued that the former Biden administration officials and others violated a section of federal law, known as 18 U.S.C. § 24, by conspiring to interfere with federally protected rights.
Created in response to a surge in violence during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, the law has historically been used to protect the civil rights of Black Americans, though prosecutors have expanded it to apply to broader election-related and police-misconduct offenses.
Notably, Trump was accused of violating the statute after he allegedly sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election, though the case was dismissed after he won the 2024 election.
Davis claims that a wide array of actions — including the FBI’s investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election and the Jan. 6 insurrection — were coordinated efforts by Democrats to impede and ultimately imprison Trump.
Davis also argues the criminal and civil cases against Trump, purported issues with Trump’s Secret Service protection ahead of two assassination attempts last year and the efforts to remove Trump from the ballot in 2024 could also be violations of federal law.
“They took the country to the break. They tried to bankrupt Trump for non-fraud. They tried to throw him in prison four times for non-crimes. They tried to take him off the ballot in Colorado and made it elsewhere unconstitutionally. They tried to take off his head when Joe Biden underfunded Trump’s Secret Service protection, said he was the biggest threat to democracy and to put a bull’s eye on Trump,” Davis said on Friday on the Johnson podcast.
With some Republican senators now raising concerns over the scope of the federal investigation of the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election — including the subpoenaing of phone records of multiple senators — Davis has argued he has enough support to carry out a sweeping investigation.
“There’s now a special grand jury that Jason [Quiñones] just motioned the court and the Southern District of Florida to open in Fort Pierce. That’s going to be empaneled in January. I think that sounds like a great place to open up this grand jury on Crossfire Hurricane and against these lawfare Democrats,” Davis said Friday.
The setting for the grand jury in Fort Pierce’s federal courthouse is a familiar one for Trump and his allies — it’s the same courthouse where he attended multiple hearings in his criminal case for allegedly retaining classified documents and obstructing justice. Davis claims the classified documents case, which was dismissed by a federal judge before the 2024 election, is part of the conspiracy against Trump as well.
“As I promised and as I will deliver, justice is definitely coming,” Davis said Friday on Johnson’s podcast.
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