Trump's Victory Lap at DOJ

No one could have written a better script than the full circle moment that happened today at the Department of Justice. As I always said--karma, bitches.

On March 14, 2024, I was in the media room at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon at the time was presiding over a hearing on two motions filed by defense lawyers representing Donald Trump and his co-defendants seeking to dismiss the classified documents indictment handed down by then Special Counsel Jack Smith in June 2023.

My report on the proceedings is here.

Trump’s defense lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, were in the courtroom that day representing the president. They were simultaneously defending Trump in the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg; it was a fraught time as the president also faced a separate federal criminal indictment in Washington related to January 6. (Those proceedings were on hold pending the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity.)

Also in court that day was Jay Bratt, the longtime Justice Department apparatchik who initiated the investigation and pushed for the armed raid of Mar-a-Lago.

That is why today’s speech at the DOJ by President Trump—exactly one year later—is both sweet and surreal.

Blanche and Bove are number two and three, respectively, at the Trump DOJ. Bratt and Smith are under investigation. And of course, Donald Trump is president.

Of all the remarkable moments of the new Trump presidency, this stands alone. As I watched his speech—and remarks given by Blanche—I envisioned the reaction by Joe Biden, former AG Merrick Garland, former deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco, Jack Smith, former FBI Director Chris Wray and his toadies, and former DC US Attorney Matthew Graves as Trump stood behind the DOJ backdrop condemning the “thugs,” “hacks,” and “radicals” in the department destroyed America’s trust in this once trusted institution built over “generations”

It is all on them.

He spared no words and, in the process, signaled his commitment to holding accountable those who did this to him, his family, his associates, and his supporters including law firms and intelligence officials who defended Hunter Biden’s laptop right before the 2020 election.

Clips here:

He is not messing around. And those concerned that some former DOJ and FBI perps are not in handcuffs yet should be heartened by this speech.