MAGA expectations soar after DOJ orders Russia grand jury probe

The MAGA movement has spent the past 10 years demanding the arrests of President Trump's political enemies.Now, for the first time, the levers of power are aligned to pursue that goal from inside the federal government.Why it matters: Attorney General Pam Bondi's decision to order a grand jury investigation into Obama-era intelligence officials is a watershed moment in the history of MAGA retribution.The threat of criminal charges targeting Trump enemies, such as former FBI director James Comey and former CIA director John Brennan, is no longer confined to the base's imagination.With Trump at the peak of his powers — and the Justice Department brimming with loyalists, pretexts and political will — MAGA is primed for a historic reckoning.The big picture: Call it "MAGA justice." The DOJ traditionally has investigated allegations of wrongdoing and brought charges if it deemed appropriate, but Trump's base entered his second term with a preordained prison list."Unless we see people tried and held accountable and in orange jumpsuits and handcuffs, this is not going away," the Conservative Partnership Institute's Rachel Bovard said on Vince Coglianese's podcast Monday."Color me a little bit cautious here that we're immediately going to get perp walks and indictments, but that is what we need," activist Charlie Kirk said on his podcast Tuesday.Zoom in: The grand jury probe, focused on the origins of the 2016 Russia investigation, is the culmination of a yearslong campaign to criminalize the officials and agencies Trump claims undermined his first term.Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has accused Obama-era officials of a "treasonous conspiracy" — releasing a blitz of declassified papers aimed at discrediting the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump win.Many of Gabbard's allegations rely on misleading or rehashed claims about the complex Russia investigation, including raw intelligence intercepts debunked by special counsel John Durham.Former President Obama, Comey, Brennan and other officials have vigorously denied wrongdoing. Durham and other investigations into the origins of Russia probe have found no evidence of a criminal conspiracy.Between the lines: MAGA sees the "Russia collusion hoax" as the original sin that maligned Trump's first term — a "witch hunt" that wound up discrediting Democrats, delegitimizing the media and obliterating the old boundaries of political warfare. Reality check: Even with the drastic step of impaneling a grand jury, there's no guarantee the investigation will yield indictments — or convictions, if it reaches that point. But pressure on Bondi to deliver will be relentless.Bondi infuriated Trump's base last month by declaring in a memo that there was no Epstein "client list" — contradicting years of MAGA speculation about a high-level cover-up by Democrats, intelligence agencies and global elites.The Justice Department has scrambled to tamp down MAGA outrage by seeking the release of grand jury transcripts and interviewing imprisoned Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.What to watch: MAGA's hunt for political justice has expanded beyond the usual targets.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the arrest of Democratic lawmakers this week who fled the state to block a redistricting vote.Asked Tuesday whether the FBI should intervene to locate and arrest Democrats, Trump said "they may have to."No criminal statute was violated, but rhetoric in MAGA media is casting the state lawmakers as nothing short of fugitives.The bottom line: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted a scorecard Monday showing "zero" arrests for a grab bag of MAGA grievances — from the Russia probe to COVID to the Biden "autopen" controversy."Don't talk about it if you aren't going to do it," the MAGA hardliner said in a veiled warning to the Trump administration.

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