Trump pledges to 'expose' his enemies in political speech at Justice
Department
[March 15, 2025]
By ERIC TUCKER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ZEKE MILLER
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pledged to “expose” his enemies
during a norm-breaking political speech Friday at the Justice Department
in which he aired a litany of grievances about the criminal cases he
faced and vowed retribution for what he described as the “lies and
abuses that have occurred within these walls.”
The speech was meant to rally support for Trump administration policies
on violent crime, drugs and illegal immigration. But it also functioned
as a triumphant forum for the president to boast about having emerged
legally and politically unscathed from two federal prosecutions that one
year ago had threatened to torpedo his presidential prospects but were
dismissed after his election win last fall.
Though other presidents have spoken from the Justice Department's
ceremonial Great Hall, Trump’s address amounted to an extraordinary
display of partisan politics and personal grievance inside an
institution that is meant to be blind to both. Casting himself as the
country's “chief law enforcement officer,” a title ordinarily reserved
for the attorney general, he promised to target his perceived enemies
even as he claimed to be ending what he called the weaponization of the
department.
The speech marked the latest manifestation of Trump’s unparalleled
takeover of the department and came amid a brazen campaign of
retribution already undertaken under his watch, including the firing of
prosecutors who investigated him during the Biden administration and the
scrutiny of thousands of FBI agents who investigated the president's
supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Our predecessors turned this Department of Justice into the Department
of Injustice. But I stand before you today to declare that those days
are over, and they are never going to come back and never coming back,"
Trump said to cheers from a crowd that included local law enforcement
officials, political allies and FBI Director Kash Patel. “So now, 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 visit to the Justice Department, the first by Trump and the first by
any president in a decade, brought him into the belly of an institution
he has disparaged in searing terms for years but one that he has sought
to reshape by installing loyalists and members of his personal defense
team in top leadership positions.
The event was reminiscent of a campaign rally, with upbeat music blaring
from loudspeakers before Trump entered the Great Hall. Justice
Department and White House officials mingled while members of the crowd
posed for selfies. The podium was flanked by large signs that read
“Fighting Fentanyl in America.” Also on the stage was a cardboard box
that read “DEA evidence.”
Trump's unique status as a onetime criminal defendant indicted by the
department he was now addressing hung over the speech as he vented, in
profane and personal terms, about investigations as far back as the
Russian election interference investigation to the more recent inquiries
into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential
election and the hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago
estate.
He mentioned by name prosecutors who investigated him, calling them
“scum," and called the classified documents case against him “bulls—-."
He claimed that “a corrupt group of hacks and radicals within the ranks
of the American government obliterated the trust and goodwill built up
over generations," and said that before the department could turn the
page, “we must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred
within these walls,"
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Protesters listen as Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks after
President Donald Trump's speech at the Justice Department, Friday,
March 14, 2025, outside the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP
Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our
government. We will expose, very much expose their egregious crimes
and severe misconduct," Trump said in a wide-ranging speech that
touched on everything from Russia's war against Ukraine, the 2020
election to the price of eggs.
"It’s going to be legendary. And going to also be legendary for the
people that are able to seek it out and bring justice. We will
restore the scales of justice in America, and we will ensure that
such abuses never happen again in our country.”
His claim that the Justice Department had been weaponized during
the Biden administration overlooked that there were investigations
during that time into Biden’s mishandling of classified information
and into the firearms and tax affairs of his son Hunter. And his
recounting of the recent investigations into him did not mention
that prosecutors had amassed what they said was substantial
evidence, including that he had sought to obstruct the classified
documents inquiry.
When it comes to setting its agenda, the Justice Department
historically takes a cue from the White House but looks to maintain
its independence on individual criminal investigations.
Trump has upended such norms.
He encouraged specific investigations during his first term and
tried to engineer the firing of Robert Mueller, the special counsel
assigned to investigate ties between Russia and Trump's 2016
campaign. He also endured difficult relationships with his first two
handpicked attorneys general — Jeff Sessions was fired immediately
after the 2018 midterm election, and William Barr resigned weeks
after publicly disputing Trump's bogus claims of widespread fraud in
the 2020 election.
Arriving for a second term in January fresh off a landmark Supreme
Court opinion that reaffirmed a president's unshakable control of
the Justice Department, Trump has appeared determined to clear from
his path any potential obstacles, including by appointing Pam Bondi
— a former Florida attorney general who was part of Trump’s defense
team at his first impeachment trial — and Patel, another close ally,
to serve as FBI director.
“We all work for the greatest president in the history of our
country,” Bondi said Friday in introducing Trump. “We are so proud
to work at the directive of Donald Trump. He will never stop
fighting for us and we will never stop fighting for him and for our
country.”
Even before Bondi had been confirmed, the Justice Department fired
department employees who served on special counsel Jack Smith's
team, which brought the election interference and classified
documents cases against Trump. Both cases were dismissed last
November in line with longstanding Justice Department policy against
indicting sitting presidents.
Senior Justice Department officials also demanded from the FBI
lists of thousands of employees who worked on investigations into
the Jan 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Trump's
supporters stormed the building in an effort to halt the
certification of the electoral vote, and fired prosecutors who had
participated in the cases. And they've ordered the dismissal of a
criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams by saying the
charges had handicapped the Democrat’s ability to partner in the
Republican administration’s fight against illegal immigration.
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