Post‑election legal retaliation strategy

Political actors may increasingly plan to use legislative investigations, criminal referrals, and public prosecutorial threats immediately after elections to punish opponents and deter future participation. This is less about individual cases than a strategy that weaponizes legal institutions as a predictable follow‑on to electoral turnover. — If true, normalization of post‑election legal retaliation would change incentives for public service, chill recruitment for controversial administrations, and further erode trust in legal institutions.