U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to hold accountable those who brought legal cases against him while he was no longer in office when he spoke Friday at the Justice Department.
"Our predecessors made this Department of Justice the Department of Injustice," said Trump. "But I stand before you today to tell you that those days are over, and they're never going to come back. They're never coming back,".
While out of office, the department twice charged Trump with crimes for allegedly having unlawfully stored top-secret documents at his Florida club and for attempting to nullify the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Both cases were dropped after Trump was elected in November, with the department invoking a policy of not pursuing a sitting president.
"In my role as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, I will pursue complete accountability for the misconduct and injustices that have taken place. The American people have delivered a strong and clear mandate—one that few thought possible," Trump said.
Trump has dismissed prosecutors who charged him during the Biden presidency and questioned thousands of FBI agents who investigated some Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
House Judiciary Committee senior Democrat Representative Jamie Raskin denounced Trump's speech as a "staggering violation of [the] traditional boundary between independent criminal law enforcement and presidential political power."
Shortly after Trump spoke, Raskin addressed reporters outside the Justice Department, saying, "Never before in American history has a president stood at the Department of Justice to lay out a plan of criminal prosecution and retribution against political rivals."
Trump has been a vocal critic of the department and the FBI for many years. He has filled both of those agencies with political cronies into upper leadership roles. FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi were among those who attended Friday's speech.
In welcoming Trump, Bondi stated, "We all work for the best president in the history of our nation.. He will never give up fighting for us, and we will never give up fighting for him and for our nation."
In his address, Trump vowed "historic reforms" at the agencies and stated, "Under the Trump administration, the DOJ and the FBI will once again become the premier crime fighting agencies on the face of the Earth."
His address had echoes of his campaign speeches, with speakers blasting music before Trump arrived in the department's Great Hall and his remarks touching on some of the most popular themes of his campaign, such as border security and combating violent crime.
Speaking on crime, Trump declared homicides, property crime and robberies increased under the Biden administration.
"I have no greater call as president of the United States to stop this killing and to halt this law breaking and to safe America again. And that's what you're all about in this room. We want to safeguard Americans, and we safeguard everybody that's in our country," he declared.
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