Jeffries fears violence amid possible Trump arrest, former president's rhetoric

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries fears that former President Donald Trump's heated rhetoric surrounding his possible arrest could lead to violence.

"The twice-impeached former president’s rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible. It’s dangerous, and if he keeps it up, he’s going to get someone killed," he said, according to The Hill.

Trump announced on Saturday that he expected to be arrested the week and called for protests nationwide.

"Now illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office, which has allowed new records to be set in violent crime & whose leader is funded by George Soros, indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven, & based on an old & fully debunked (by numerous other prosecutors!) fairytale, the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Protest, take our nation back!" 

Jeffries suggested that Trump's inflammatory rhetoric could spell a repeat of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Riot during which Trump's supporters entered the U.S. Capitol in a bid to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

"We’ve already seen the consequences of incitement from the former president. He is principally responsible for inciting the violent insurrection that happened on Jan. 6. But clearly he has not learned his lesson," Jeffries added.

The case in question involves the payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels in 2016. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been investigating the payment and whether the former president may have committed any crimes in making it. One potential charge hinges on the notion that Trump misreported his payment to Michael Cohen as a legal fee and that the payment itself may have been a campaign finance violation. Legal experts have largely dismissed the case as lacking merit.

Since announcing his expected arrest, Trump has escalated his rhetoric against not just Bragg, but other investigators looking into his affairs.

"District Attorney Bragg is a danger to our Country, and should be removed immediately, along with Radical Lunatic Bombthrower Jack Smith, who is harassing and intimidating innocent people at levels not seen before, 'Get Trump' Letitia James, the worst Attorney General in the United States, and Atlanta D.A. Fani Willis, who is trying to make PERFECT phone calls into a plot to destroy America, but reigns over the most violent Crime Scene in America, and does nothing about it!" he wrote this week of Bragg and the myriad other law enforcement officials pursuing investigations.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.