Washington – President Trump used his victory visit to the Justice Department on Friday to air grievances about criminal investigations that have torpedoed his political career, often denounced his enemies and cast himself as a victim of unfair and biased prosecution.
The speech was intended to gather support for Trump’s harsh crime agenda. However, it served as a victory lap after he emerged legally and politically unharmed from two federal indictments dismissed after winning the election last fall.
The choice of venue for the speech highlights Trump’s strong interest in the division, and his desire to exert influence after a criminal investigation that hid his inauguration and his first four years in his subsequent campaign. The visit was the first by Trump, the first by the president in a decade, and although he brought him to the belly of an institution that has been doing light paras on the conditions he burned for years, he tried to reshape the Loyalists and members of his personal defense team by setting up the highest leadership positions.
“We expel fraudsters and corrupt forces from the government. Trump exposes their aggravated crimes and serious misconduct in his broad speeches that touch on topics including Russian war against Ukraine and egg prices, exposes them to levels that he has never seen before.
“It will be legendary, and it is also legendary for those who can seek it and bring justice. We will restore the scale of justice in America and ensure that such abuse will never happen again in our country.”
There is a precedent for the president to speak to the Justice Department workforce from the building’s ceremonial Great Hall, but Trump’s trip two months later was particularly impressive as he characterized his unique status as a former criminal defendant charged by the agency he was working on, and his crimes, including his criminal surveillance, including his criminal justice search, including his exposure to his criminal justice system. Fla. , for classified documents.
Trump’s visit will also be at Atty’s time. General Pam Bondy argued that even though critics argued that agency leadership injects politics into the decision-making process, the department needs to be depoliticized.
The relationship between the president and the Justice Department leader has waxed and declined over decades, depending on the personality of the office holder and the sensitivity of the investigation that has dominated the day. The dynamic between Democrat Biden and his Attorney General Merrick Garland was known to have been fruised in part due to the investigation of a special adviser who oversaw Biden’s mistreatment of classification information and his son Hunter’s firearms and tax errors.
When it comes to setting an agenda, the Department of Justice has historically taken cues from the White House, but is trying to maintain its independence from individual criminal investigations.
Trump overturned such norms.
He encouraged certain investigations during his first term and sought to design the firing of Robert Mueller, a special adviser assigned to investigate the relationship between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. He also endured difficult relationships with his first two carefully selected attorney generals. Jeff Sessions was fired shortly after the 2018 midterm elections, and William Burr resigned a few weeks after publicly disputing Trump’s allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
New arrival from the groundbreaking Supreme Court opinion that arrived in a second term in January and reaffirmed the unwavering control of the President’s Justice Department, Trump appeared to have resolved to clear potential obstacles from his path, including the appointment of Bondi, a former Florida lawyer general who was part of Trump’s defense team in his first round-each trial.
At her January confirmation hearing, Bondi appeared to support Trump’s false claims of mass voter fraud in 2020 by refusing to directly answer whether Trump lost to Biden.
She also reflected his position that he was unfairly “targeted” by the Department of Justice despite the wealth of evidence that prosecutors say they have accumulated. She regularly praised him for her appearances on the Fox News Channel, proudly pointing out that she had removed portraits of Vice President Biden, Garland and Kamala Harris from the Justice Department walls.
“We all want to worship Donald Trump, protect him and fight for his agenda, and the Americans have overwhelmingly chosen him for his agenda,” Bondy said in a recent Fox interview with Trump’s stepdaughter, Lara Trump.
Even before Bondi was confirmed, the Justice Department fired a department employee who worked for special advisor Jack Smith’s team, and Trump accused him of overturning the 2020 election and stocking up confidential documents at Mar-a-Lago. Both cases were dismissed last November in line with years of Justice Department policies against indicting a sitting president.
Authorities also fired prosecutors who participated in the case on January 6, 2021, from the FBI list of thousands of employees who worked to investigate the U.S. Capitol riots, where a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building to stop the recognition of election votes.
And they ordered the firing of a criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, saying the charges impaired the Democratic Party’s ability to partner in the Republican administration’s fight against illegal immigration.
Rich writing for Tucker and Associated Press. Zeke Miller, Associated Press Writer in Washington, contributed to this report.
