“This is a renowned hall.
That’s why President Donald Trump opened his remarks to the US Department of Justice, before he began his speech accusing him of his predecessor’s government judge, prosecutor and corruption.
It was an extraordinary moment that suggested potential legal action against political rivals.
Trump claimed in the 2024 election he gave him a mandate to investigate those who felt he had committed “abuse” under former President Joe Biden.
“I assert and demand complete and complete accountability for the mistakes and abuses that have occurred,” Trump said. “The American people have given us a mandate. In fact, merely extensive research is what they demand for corruption in our system.”
Critics have long feared that if Trump returns to power, he will seek retaliation against his political rivals.
While on the 2024 campaign trail, he repeatedly called the Democrats “an enemy from within” and “evil” rather than the threat poses from China and Russia. He also said he would threaten critics like Republican Liz Cheney in prison and appoint a special prosecutor to chase after Biden.
But Friday’s speech to the Justice Department is a platform for Trump to update these threats, continuing to spread false claims that questioned Biden’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election.
“I think it was the most humiliating time in our country’s history,” Trump said of Biden’s term. “What a difference in our country was that integrated, bent elections. When you think about it, those who did this to us should go to prison. They should go to prison.”
Trump justifies department fire
Trump targeted prosecutors who worked for the Justice Department, especially those who participated in criminal investigations against him.
Since taking office in his second term on January 20th, the president has led campaigns against what he considers as a “Biden bureaucrat,” but critics have pointed out that many are nonpartisan civil servants.
Among the thousands of federal employees fired in the past two months, career prosecutors who participated in two federal probes have joined Trump’s actions. One is to allegations of mistreatment of classification documents, and the other is to try to destroy the 2020 election.
Both lawsuits were ultimately dropped after Trump won reelection on November 5th. The Department of Justice has a policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
However, career prosecutors are tasked with serving which presidents are in office, but Trump is trying to ensure they are removed.
He also accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing” the Justice Department in order to derail his reelection campaign.
“When we start a new chapter we are proud of in the American Chronicle of Justice, this is what really turns the page on: four years of corruption, weaponization, surrender to violent criminals,” Trump said Friday.
“But first, we must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls. Unfortunately, in recent years, corrupt groups of hacking and extremists within the American government’s ranks have wiped out the trust and goodwill built up over generations. They armed the vast power of our intelligence reporting agencies and law enforcement in an attempt to stop the will of the American people.”
Trump touted that Justice Department prosecutors had been fired from the stage and described them as “Marxists,” but admitted that he may have fired a loyal civil servant.
“Last month I fired all the radical left professional crime US lawyers appointed by Joe Biden. There were a lot of bad things, but I know there are probably very good things. But there were so many people who were very bad, evil, so corrupt,” he said.
His speech appeared to show more firing as Trump continues his campaign against Biden-related officials.
“We expel fraudsters and corrupt forces from the government. We expose their terrible crimes and their serious misconduct to levels and expose them so much — you’ve never seen anything like that,” Trump said.
“It will become legendary, and it will also become legendary for those who can seek it and bring justice.”
Trump calls reporting the lawsuit “illegal”
Before his election, Trump faced a total of four criminal charges. Two federal cases and state-level lawsuits over alleged election interference in Georgia and forged business records in New York.
The incident was linked to alleged efforts to cover hash money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump denied his sexual relationship with Daniels and refuted allegations of misconduct, but he was still found guilty of 34 felony charges in the New York case.
A few weeks before his January inauguration, he was sentenced to unconditional discharge, but that was not accompanied by punishment.
“The lawsuit against me was a bull****,” Trump said dullly at one point Friday.
He was the first president, past or present, and was not convicted, to face criminal charges.
However, Trump re-enquiries these cases in front of Justice Department audiences on Friday, and even issued ambiguous threats to journalists for reporting the incident. He accused media members of trying to illegally shake up the judge who was the main side of his criminal case.
“They are suffering immense abuse in the New York Times and the Washington Post,” Trump said of the judge.
“They are being abused like that. And honestly, very simply, they fear bad advertising. They don’t want bad advertising, and that’s really interfering in my opinion. And it should be illegal, and perhaps in some way.”
However, he reserved praise for Federal Judge Irene Cannon, representing the Southern District of Florida.
“She was an absolute model of what a judge should be,” Trump said.
Trump’s appointee Cannon oversees a federal lawsuit claiming Trump had received a subpoena to return them, claiming he had illegally withheld more than 340 classified documents after his first term.
In leaked audio recordings from 2021, Trump appeared to admit that the documents were released or not approved. “As president, I might have declassified it,” Trump said on the recording. “We can’t do it now, but this is still a secret.”
The document was seized by the federal government during a search for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, but Trump has asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to return the documents to his private residence.
Cannon was criticized for attempting to dismiss the July-classified document case based on the basis that appointing a special advisor is not a constitutional act.
For decades, the U.S. Attorney General has appointed special advice to avoid conflicts of interest. The US Attorney General is a political appointee, but special advisors usually come from outside the government and are given permission to make decisions independently.
Cannon’s decision was primarily considered a precedent break, but Trump praised it as an act of courage on Friday.
“We had a great judge in Florida. Her name was Eileen Cannon and I didn’t know her. I don’t know her yet. I don’t think I spoke to her during the trial, but I appointed her federal judge,” he said.
“And these fake lawyers, these horrible people were attacking her very violently, in regards to public relations. They were playing refs. I don’t think it’s legal.”
It was unclear whether Trump was referring to government lawyers or legal experts. But he again attacked the media, accusing journalists of putting pressure on judges like Cannon.
“What do you do to get rid of that? You’re going to convict Trump,” the president said of the pressure.
“What you have to do is really difficult for him and ultimately convict him. And they’ll leave you alone. What they’re doing is completely illegal. I hope you can see it. But it’s completely illegal and what they’re doing to her was so unfair, but they always do it with the judge.”
Trump ended by remembering the words of British philosopher John Locke: “Where the law ends, tyranny begins.” These words are engraved on the Department of Justice’s limestone walls.
“We can’t chase political opponents,” Trump said.
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