By Allan Lengel
Stuart Stevens, George Romney’s chief strategist in 2012, said it best Sunday on MSNBC: President Donald Trump’s remarks at the Justice Department on Friday sounded like something a gangster would say.
“We’re turning the page on four long years of corruption, weaponization, and surrender to violent criminals,” Trump said in his speech. “And we’re restoring fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law. And you’re the people that are doing it. Very, very proud of all of you. Under the Trump administration, the DOJ and the FBI will once again become the premier crime-fighting agencies on the face of the Earth.”
He went on to say: “Alphonse Capone, the great Alphonse Capone, legendary Scarface, was attacked only a tiny fraction of what Trump was attacked.”
Yes, this is the man who was charged with illegally conspiring to overturn a legitimate election—a man who, after being repeatedly asked to return top-secret documents to Washington, opted to have his stooges hide them, eventually forcing the FBI to raid Mar-a-Lago. Had he returned the documents when asked, there’s no way criminal charges would ever have been filed.
Let’s not forget, he was not vindicated, he simply beat the system.
During his speech Friday he praised his new Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and FBI Director, Kash Patel, both of whom were less than forthright during their Congressional confirmation hearings, assuring senators that there was no room for vendettas on behalf of Trump under their leadership.
Of course, since Trump took office, we’ve seen federal prosecutors fired for doing their jobs and prosecuting Jan. 6 rioters. Some top FBI officials have also been fired, including the head of the New York office, James Dennehy, a well-respected leader who refused to be a toady to the meddling administration. In normal times, Dennehy may eventually have been elevated to the FBI’s deputy director.
The message is clear: Do as we say, no matter how ethically questionable it is, or be fired.
Then, during his speech, he launched into his grievance campaign, attacking those behind his prosecutions.
“These are people that are bad people, really bad people. They tried to turn America into a corrupt communist and third-world country. But in the end, the thugs failed, and the truth won. Freedom won, justice won, democracy won, and above all, the American people won. There could be no more heinous betrayal of American values than to use the law to terrorize the innocent and reward the wicked, and that’s what they were doing at a level that’s never been seen before.”
He went on to boast about revoking the security clearances of his enemies. No vendetta here, I guess.
“My administration stripped the security clearances of the disgraced intelligence agents who lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell. We revoked the clearances of deranged Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, and the crooked law firms that aided their partisan prosecutions. And I went through it. These are state and city courts, and the corruption is unbelievable.”
Sadly, people at the Justice Department had to sit there and listen to his promise to restore integrity to the justice system when, in reality, there will be endless meddling by the White House like we’ve never seen before.
That much I’m confident of.
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