Fix accountability for the wrongs, abuses: Trump in Justice Department speech
President Donald Trump addressed the US Justice Department on Friday and demanded accountability for those prosecutors and officials who led legal proceedings against him during the time he was out of power. The US Justice Department prosecutors had brought some of those cases.
During his time out of office from 2021 to 2024, Trump faced legal proceedings in matters including the Hush Money case, involving adult star Stormy Daniels, where he was accused of buying her silence about their alleged adult encounter.
Trump was spared from any punishment over his criminal conviction in the case by a New York judge, having to pay no fines or spend no time in jail.
Trump, delivering the address at the Justice Department’s Washington headquarters, slammed the way it functioned before he assumed power again and said that it was being run by “hacks and radicals”.
“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, one like few people thought possible,” Trump was quoted as saying by Reuters.
During the speech, Trump touched upon topics he spoke about during his 2024 presidential campaign, including border security and the threat of violent crime. But the focus during the address remained around his bitter past with the Justice Department, which oversees the enforcement of federal laws across the country.
Trump, while out of office, faced trial as he was accused of illegally holding classified documents at his Florida club and conspiring to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election.
“We must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls,” Trump said.
Notably, both the cases against the Republican president were dropped by former Special Counsel Jack Smith without a trial, after Trump recorded a thumping win against former Vice President Kamala Harris in November last year. Smith had invoked the Justice Department policy that bars prosecuting an incumbent president.
During the speech, Trump recapitulated his reservations about the cases he faced, and praised the federal judge who dismissed the classified documents case, and who was nominated by him.
He time and again stressed that cases pursued by Smith against him were part of an attempt to deny him a return to power, vowing retribution and claims of government “weaponisation” to further boost the chances of his political comeback. However, prosecutors always denied any political influence in the cases.
Meanwhile, an internal review of the cases run by Smith, among other cases, has been initiated by Trump-nominated Pam Bondi.
The restructured Justice Department has recently fired more than a dozen lawyers who worked on cases that were pursued against Trump.
The US President, lately, has been seemingly tightening the screws on the Justice Department, which, for the most part, has enjoyed an image and style of working which is free from any pressure or influence from the White House.
With agency inputs
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