President Trump vowed to seek “accountability” for his political enemies in a speech marking a new chapter for the justice department that brought multiple criminal indictments against him under President Biden.
In a rare presidential address from the department’s headquarters in Washington, Trump vowed to “restore the scales of justice in America” with an attack on the officials who pursued him during his years out of office.
“We must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls,” he said, claiming that the justice system had been “weaponised” against him by “a corrupt group of hacks and radicals”.
As he did on the campaign trail last year, Trump vowed retribution, promising a “far-reaching investigation into the corruption in our system … As the chief law enforcement officer in our country, I will insist upon and demand full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred. The American people have given us a mandate — a mandate like few people thought possible.”
Trump faced four criminal indictments and a string of civil lawsuits after leaving office in 2021. He was found guilty on 34 felony counts of fraud for concealing hush money payments to a porn star last year, becoming the first former president to be convicted of a crime.
Despite that legal peril, Trump successfully delayed and fought off the cases before securing effective immunity with his victory in November’s presidential election. Two federal lawsuits, brought by the special counsel Jack Smith over Trump’s role in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol in 2021 and classified documents seized at his Florida home, collapsed with his return to the White House.
Trump has installed arch-loyalists to the top of the justice system since returning to power, raising expectations that he will pursue his political enemies. Dozens of prosecutors who worked on investigations stemming from the January 6 attack have already been fired, along with justice department and FBI officials who worked on Smith’s prosecutions of Trump.
Bondi and Trump walked out together under the president’s official portrait
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP
The speech was the first time that a president has delivered a political address from inside the department since 2014, when President Obama addressed the scandal that followed Edward Snowden’s disclosure of US surveillance programmes. The White House indicated that Trump would use the speech to detail his plans to toughen law and order, but the president soon veered into a campaign rally-style speech.
He repeated his claim that his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden was “rigged” and that while prosecutors “did everything within their power to prevent me from becoming the president of the United States … in the end, the thugs failed and the truth won”.
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The president reserved special praise for Eileen Cannon, the Florida judge he appointed during his first term, who last year dismissed the federal charges against Trump over the cache of classified documents seized at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
“She was brilliant,” Trump said of Cannon. “The absolute model of what a judge should be.”
“The case against me was bullshit,” the president added, standing in the building where the charges against him were approved. “She correctly dismissed it.”
Trump did eventually return to the theme of his speech, vowing to step up his crackdown on illegal immigration, which soared under the “open-border Biden regime”. He repeated his campaign pledge to seek a mandatory death sentence for anyone who murders a police officer. Trump added that he wished to emulate countries like China, which bring the death penalty for drug traffickers, but said: “I don’t know if this country is ready for it.”
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