Department of Justice officials who helped prosecute now-President Donald Trump during the Biden administration will face “full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred,” Trump said on Friday.
“Unfortunately, in recent years, a corrupt group of hacks and radicals within the ranks of the American government obliterated the trust and goodwill built up over generations,” Trump said during his remarks at the DOJ. “They weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to try and thwart the will of the American people.”
“Our predecessors turned this Department of Justice into the Department of Injustice,” Trump added. “But I stand before you today to declare that those days are over and they are never going to come back.”
Several DOJ officials led criminal investigations into Trump, including special counsel Jack Smith, who led failed federal investigations into the election interference and Mar-a-Lago classified documents cases against Trump. Smith was appointed by former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 and resigned before Trump assumed office in January.
“There could be no more heinous betrayal of American values than to use the law to terrorize the innocent and reward the wicked,” Trump said. “And that’s what they were doing at a level that’s never been seen before. And it’s exactly what you saw with Joe Biden, Merrick Garland and their cronies to do the building over the last four years. They ripped what they’ve ripped down is incalculable.”
Trump almost immediately fired more than a dozen career prosecutors at the Justice Department when he returned to office, all of whom worked on Smith’s investigations. The firings were “consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government,” a DOJ official said at the time.
President Joe Biden’s DOJ oversaw “four long years of corruption, weaponization and surrender to violent criminals,” Trump said on Friday. Repeating claims that the Biden DOJ was on a witch-hunt to prosecute him, Trump said that DOJ officials persecuted his “family, staff, and supporters,” spied on his campaign and raided his home, and executed “one hoax and disinformation campaign after the other.” Rogue actors within the DOJ will face “full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred,” he added.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel joined Trump for his visit to the DOJ, a rare appearance for a sitting president to make.