'He’s going to be unleashed': Former GOP DOJ officials paint 'apocalyptic' portrait of a second Trump term

Several former Department of Justice employees who were appointed by Republican presidents are issuing a dire warning about what will happen to the rule of law if President Donald Trump wins a second term.

In an interview with Politico, former deputy attorney general Donald B. Ayer said that Trump would face even fewer constraints in a second term than he has in his first term.

"I think a lot of us are extremely alarmed, frankly, at the threat of autocracy," said Ayer, who was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush. "He’s going to be unleashed if he gets a second term. I don’t know what’s going to stop him."

Other officials who joined Ayer in denouncing Trump and throwing their weight behind Democratic rival Joe Biden include Charles Fried, former U.S. solicitor general under the Reagan administration; Peter Keisler, former U.S. acting attorney general under George W. Bush; Paul Rosenweig, who served in the department of Homeland Security under George W. Bush; and Robert Shanks, former U.S. deputy assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration.

"There’s no reasonable choice here at all," Ayer said. "Trump is a person who is utterly unfit to serve. I don’t want to be apocalyptic but if he were reelected then all of the tendencies that we’ve seen in the first term — and they keep getting scarier and scarier."