Hillary Clinton has been conspicuously silent as Donald Trump faces criminal charges in New York, despite Mr Trump and his supporters turning “Lock her up!” into a central attack line throughout the pair’s 2016 presidential contest.
So far, as Mr Trump was inside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, the former Secretary of State has only posted an unrelated message on Twitter. The missive urged Wisconsin voters to turn out for state elections.
It’s a far cry from the 2016 campaign, where Mr Trump encouraged his supporters who regularly and raucously called for Ms Clinton’s arrest.
During that campaign, and in the years since, Mr Trump has regularly suggested Ms Clinton has committed crimes and should face punishment. He’s spread conspiracy theories related to the 2012 attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, Libya, as well the saga surrounding Ms Clinton’s use of a private mail server during her time at the State Department.
(In 2016, the FBI-director James Comey said that Ms Clinton had been “extremely careless” in using a private email server, while adding that he wouldn’t recommend charges against the former US senator and Secretary of State.)
During that same 2016 campaign, Mr Trump publicly called on Russia officials to track down Ms Clinton’s emails. This seeming call to action matched the actions of Russian intelligence agents, who were attempting to hack those in the Clinton inner circle at the very same time.
In the past, Ms Clinton has publicly supported different attempts to hold Mr Trump accountable, including his second impeachment following the events of the January 6 insurrection, and called the event a broader sign of dangerous white supremacy in America.
“Removing Trump from office is essential, and I believe he should be impeached,” Ms Clinton wrote in the Washington Post in 2021. “Members of Congress who joined him in subverting our democracy should resign, and those who conspired with the domestic terrorists should be expelled immediately. But that alone won’t remove white supremacy and extremism from America.”
