Lawman, it's said, puts down government supporters (9)

I believe the answer is:

loyalists

'government supporters' is the definition.
(people loyal to a government)

'lawman it's said puts down' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'it's' could be 'ts' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 'ts' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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