White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has lashed out at suggestions that Donald Trump is weaponizing the Justice Department, saying he was simply holding people accountable for trying to jail him.
Two days after Trump publicly vented at Attorney General Pam Bondi for not charging his opponents soon enough, Leavitt was confronted during her latest press briefing about the retribution campaign he has embarked on since coming to office.
Asked if the President was breaking his Inauguration Day pledge – that “never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents” – the press secretary doubled down.
“It is not weaponizing the Department of Justice to demand accountability for those who weaponized the Department of Justice – and nobody knows what that looks like more than President Trump,” she said.
“We are not going to tolerate gaslighting from anyone in the media or from anyone on the other side who is trying to say that it’s the president who is weaponizing the DOJ.
“It was Joe Biden and his attorney general who weaponized the DOJ. Joe Biden abused this sacred American institution to go after his political opponent in an election year.”
Leavitt’s comments underscore the longstanding Republican view that Democrats embarked on a campaign to target the twice impeached president, who was criminally indicted four times in the lead up to the 2024 election.
Two of those indictments were made by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who charged Trump for trying to subvert the 2020 election and for mishandling classified documents.
He was also indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for trying to overthrow the 2020 election results in Georgia.
And in New York, he was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg – and later convicted by a unanimous jury – for paying hush money to cover up a sex scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels.
All the cases eventually died when the Supreme Court granted Trump presidential immunity, but Trump has always maintained that he was the victim of a political witch hunt designed to stop him from returning to office.
Since then, Trump has fired Smith, purged numerous justice department and FBI employees who were appointed under the Biden administration and demanded Bondi do more to bring charges against his perceived enemies.
“We can’t delay any longer,” Trump posted on Truth Social in a message directed to “Pam”. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
In the message, Trump lamented the lack of criminal charges against some of his most prominent adversaries, including California Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who the administration have accused of mortgage fraud.
Trump also spent much of the post venting about Erik Siebert, the former U.S. attorney from the Eastern District of Virginia, who he forced out Friday amid reports that Siebert did not believe there was enough evidence to charge James.
Asked if it now mattered whether a person was actually guilty, Leavitt fired back by lashing out at James successfully sued Trump and his company for civil fraud, in a judgement that could cost him almost $500 million if he fails to win an appeal against the verdict.
“Letitia James was actively and openly engaged in lawfare,” she said. “What was Letitia James’ campaign slogan? To prosecute Donald Trump.”
She added that the president simply wanted accountability for “corrupt fraudsters who abused their power” for trying to take him down.
“I think the president is reaffirmed in his frustrations and his hope for accountability by the millions and millions of Americans who re-elected him to this office,” she said.
“The president has every right to express how he feels about these people who literally campaigned on trying to put him in jail.”
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