DOJ RENAMED; TRUMP GESTAPO
By AFP
March 14, 2025
US President Donald Trump used a speech to prosecutors and law enforecement officials at the Department of Justice to threaten media critics with investigation - Copyright AFP/File Mandel NGAN
Danny KEMP
US President Donald Trump launched a bitter attack against the “illegal” media and his political enemies Friday, as a speech at the Department of Justice turned into a grievance-filled diatribe.
Trump — the first convicted felon to sit in the White House — was meant to be talking about law and order at an organization supposed to be insulated from political pressure.
But instead the 78-year-old Republican spent much of his time rehearsing complaints that predecessor Joe Biden had “weaponized” the department against him and pledging to “expose” his foes.
“Our predecessors turned the Department of Justice into the Department of Injustice,” Trump said. “I stand before you today to declare that those days are over, and they are never going to come back.”
Since returning to office Trump has taken a sledgehammer to the Justice Department, which previously brought two criminal cases against him including one for allegedly trying to overturn the result of the 2020 election.
But in his speech he vowed to go a step further and investigate his foes, saying: “We must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls.”
He said his administration would “expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government, we will… very much expose their egregious crimes and severe misconduct.”
Trump reserved special ire for US media outlets which cover him critically.
Speaking to an audience of prosecutors and law enforcement agents, Trump said broadcasters CNN and MSNBC and unidentified newspapers “literally write 97.6 percent bad about me” and “it has to stop. It has to be illegal.”
He described the media outlets as “political arms of the Democrat party. And in my opinion they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal.”
– ‘Fake news’ –
Trump has made attacks on the US media a central part of his message ever since his first election to the presidency in 2016 — describing them as “enemies of the people” and “fake news.”
Since starting his second term in January, Trump has moved quickly to pressure mainstream media like The Associated Press while boosting access to the White House for formerly fringe right-wing outlets.
Trump’s extraordinary speech stepped up his breaking of decades-old political norms aimed at preserving judicial independence from the White House.
Trump pledged on the campaign trail in the 2024 election to overhaul the department if he won a second term.
He had it in his sights ever since Special Counsel Jack Smith charged him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he still refuses to admit he lost, and illegally taking thousands of secret documents with him on leaving the White House in 2021.
But neither case came to trial and the special counsel, in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president, dropped them both after Trump won the November presidential election.
Trump rocked the department on his first day back in office by pardoning more than 1,500 supporters who, in an unprecedented act of US political violence, stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, seeking to interrupt certification of Biden’s election win.
‘Sounds like Putin’: Trump blasted for declaring top news organizations ‘illegal’
David Badash,
'Desecration of the DOJ': Ex-prosecutor tears down Trump's 'disgraceful' speechDavid Badash,
The New Civil Rights Movement
March 14, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi shake hands during his visit to the Department of Justice to address its workers, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 14, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
President Donald Trump, just 54 days into his second term, declared himself “the chief law enforcement officer in our country” and labeled two major news organizations, CNN and MSNBC, as “illegal,” while further denouncing their coverage as “illegal.” His remarks Thursday afternoon were delivered to officials at the U.S. Department of Justice, in an appearance that shattered a decades-old norm designed to insulate the department from political interference—a safeguard established in response to President Richard Nixon’s abuses of power. Trump’s statements have drawn sharp criticism for their authoritarian tone and direct attack on press freedom, sparking alarm.
“I believe that CNN and MSNDC,” said Trump (video below), using his own derogatory twist on MSNBC’s name, “who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal.
Trump also “rallied against the press,” in general, “claiming they are influencing judges and, without any evidence, claiming the media works in coordination with political campaigns, which is not allowed in the news industry,” The Hill reported.
It has been widely reported that during his first term in office, Fox News host Sean Hannity spoke with Trump “nearly every weeknight.”
“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative. And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really, eh, changing law and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal and they do it in total coordination with each other,” the President alleged.
Trump’s remarks were just a part of a speech that lasted more than one hour, during which he “delivered an insult-laden speech that shattered the traditional notion of DOJ independence,” as Politico reported. During those remarks, Trump also “labeled his courtroom opponents ‘scum,’ judges ‘corrupt’ and the prosecutors who investigated him ‘deranged.'”
“With the DOJ logo directly behind him, Trump called for his legal tormentors to be sent to prison.”
It is not the first time the President, who is a convicted felon, has declared MSNBC “illegal.”
Last month, when MSNBC host Joy Reid left the news network, Trump unleashed a torrent of hatred.
“Lowlife Chairman of ‘Concast,’ Brian Roberts, the owner of Ratings Challenged NBC and MSDNC, has finally gotten the nerve up to fire one of the least talented people in television, the mentally obnoxious racist, Joy Reid,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform. “Based on her ratings, which were virtually non-existent, she should have been ‘canned’ long ago, along with everyone else who works there. Also thrown out was Alex Wagner, the sub on the seriously failing Rachel Maddow show. Rachel rarely shows up because she knows there’s nobody watching, and she also knows that she’s got less television persona than virtually anyone on television except, perhaps, Joy Reid.”
Trump’s Friday afternoon assault on the media was swiftly criticized.
“This is what a dictator sounds like,” wrote U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI).
“Journalism is legal,” declared award-winning investigative journalist Lindsay Beyerstein. “Criticizing the president is legal. Being a Democrat is legal. Nothing Donald Trump is ranting about here is a crime and he’s disgracing himself and the Department of Justice by talking this way.”
Journalist Matt O’Brien observed, “Trump wants to get rid of freedom of speech because he wants to be a dictator. And unlike his first term, he now has a government full of fascists who are eager to make that a reality.”
Marlow Stern, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Journalism at Columbia University’s Columbia Journalism School wrote: “sounds like putin.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist Kyle Whitmire wrote simply: “Enemy of the Constitution.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
March 14, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi shake hands during his visit to the Department of Justice to address its workers, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 14, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
President Donald Trump, just 54 days into his second term, declared himself “the chief law enforcement officer in our country” and labeled two major news organizations, CNN and MSNBC, as “illegal,” while further denouncing their coverage as “illegal.” His remarks Thursday afternoon were delivered to officials at the U.S. Department of Justice, in an appearance that shattered a decades-old norm designed to insulate the department from political interference—a safeguard established in response to President Richard Nixon’s abuses of power. Trump’s statements have drawn sharp criticism for their authoritarian tone and direct attack on press freedom, sparking alarm.
“I believe that CNN and MSNDC,” said Trump (video below), using his own derogatory twist on MSNBC’s name, “who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat Party. And in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal.
Trump also “rallied against the press,” in general, “claiming they are influencing judges and, without any evidence, claiming the media works in coordination with political campaigns, which is not allowed in the news industry,” The Hill reported.
It has been widely reported that during his first term in office, Fox News host Sean Hannity spoke with Trump “nearly every weeknight.”
“These networks and these newspapers are really no different than a highly paid political operative. And it has to stop, it has to be illegal, it’s influencing judges and it’s really, eh, changing law and it just cannot be legal. I don’t believe it’s legal and they do it in total coordination with each other,” the President alleged.
Trump’s remarks were just a part of a speech that lasted more than one hour, during which he “delivered an insult-laden speech that shattered the traditional notion of DOJ independence,” as Politico reported. During those remarks, Trump also “labeled his courtroom opponents ‘scum,’ judges ‘corrupt’ and the prosecutors who investigated him ‘deranged.'”
“With the DOJ logo directly behind him, Trump called for his legal tormentors to be sent to prison.”
It is not the first time the President, who is a convicted felon, has declared MSNBC “illegal.”
Last month, when MSNBC host Joy Reid left the news network, Trump unleashed a torrent of hatred.
“Lowlife Chairman of ‘Concast,’ Brian Roberts, the owner of Ratings Challenged NBC and MSDNC, has finally gotten the nerve up to fire one of the least talented people in television, the mentally obnoxious racist, Joy Reid,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform. “Based on her ratings, which were virtually non-existent, she should have been ‘canned’ long ago, along with everyone else who works there. Also thrown out was Alex Wagner, the sub on the seriously failing Rachel Maddow show. Rachel rarely shows up because she knows there’s nobody watching, and she also knows that she’s got less television persona than virtually anyone on television except, perhaps, Joy Reid.”
Trump’s Friday afternoon assault on the media was swiftly criticized.
“This is what a dictator sounds like,” wrote U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI).
“Journalism is legal,” declared award-winning investigative journalist Lindsay Beyerstein. “Criticizing the president is legal. Being a Democrat is legal. Nothing Donald Trump is ranting about here is a crime and he’s disgracing himself and the Department of Justice by talking this way.”
Journalist Matt O’Brien observed, “Trump wants to get rid of freedom of speech because he wants to be a dictator. And unlike his first term, he now has a government full of fascists who are eager to make that a reality.”
Marlow Stern, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Journalism at Columbia University’s Columbia Journalism School wrote: “sounds like putin.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist Kyle Whitmire wrote simply: “Enemy of the Constitution.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
Erik De La Garza
March 14, 2025
RAW STORY
(Screengrab via CNN)
Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig launched a fiery rebuke of President Donald Trump’s speech at the Department of Justice, which the CNN legal analyst noted was unlike anything he had ever witnessed.
Honig used his appearance on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” on Friday to rip into Trump while reminding viewers just how unprecedented the grievance-filled speech was.
“What happened today – that speech – was a desecration of the Justice Department of the Great Hall of Justice, where it was given," he said. “AGs, and occasionally, presidents of both parties have used that room for decades to address the rank and file, like I once was, to call on the highest principles of DOJ.”
Honig went on to read an excerpt from a 1962 speech given by then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy – who the DOJ named the Main Justice Department building after. He then delivered a verbal takedown of Trump.
“Now, today, by contrast, we have Donald Trump calling prosecutors Marxists, scum, savages and thugs,” Honig said. “We have a five minute speech on Bobby Knight in Indiana basketball. We have talk about the price of eggs and bacon. We have stuff about Hunter Biden’s laptop. We have a riff about Norm Eisen – why? I have no idea.”
He continued to scorch the presidential remarks, which also included claims “that firefighters voted for him by 94%,” Honig said as he rattled on about the surprising topics the president addressed at the DOJ. “We have mentions of Al Capone, Wyatt Earp, Rudy Giuliani, and then it ends with – I actually thought I was hearing something wrong – YMCA. That song, they played it and he danced to it on the stage of the Great Hall.”
“It was disgraceful,” Honig concluded.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) called the event on Friday “very creepy.”
“This is something that I think Americans, regardless of your political position, should really be worried about,” he added.
Watch the clip below or at this link:
(Screengrab via CNN)
Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig launched a fiery rebuke of President Donald Trump’s speech at the Department of Justice, which the CNN legal analyst noted was unlike anything he had ever witnessed.
Honig used his appearance on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” on Friday to rip into Trump while reminding viewers just how unprecedented the grievance-filled speech was.
“What happened today – that speech – was a desecration of the Justice Department of the Great Hall of Justice, where it was given," he said. “AGs, and occasionally, presidents of both parties have used that room for decades to address the rank and file, like I once was, to call on the highest principles of DOJ.”
Honig went on to read an excerpt from a 1962 speech given by then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy – who the DOJ named the Main Justice Department building after. He then delivered a verbal takedown of Trump.
“Now, today, by contrast, we have Donald Trump calling prosecutors Marxists, scum, savages and thugs,” Honig said. “We have a five minute speech on Bobby Knight in Indiana basketball. We have talk about the price of eggs and bacon. We have stuff about Hunter Biden’s laptop. We have a riff about Norm Eisen – why? I have no idea.”
He continued to scorch the presidential remarks, which also included claims “that firefighters voted for him by 94%,” Honig said as he rattled on about the surprising topics the president addressed at the DOJ. “We have mentions of Al Capone, Wyatt Earp, Rudy Giuliani, and then it ends with – I actually thought I was hearing something wrong – YMCA. That song, they played it and he danced to it on the stage of the Great Hall.”
“It was disgraceful,” Honig concluded.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) called the event on Friday “very creepy.”
“This is something that I think Americans, regardless of your political position, should really be worried about,” he added.
Watch the clip below or at this link:
'He's talking about criminalizing it!' Trump's DOJ attack on media stuns CNN's Jake Tapper
Sarah K. Burris
March 14, 2025
CNN host Jake Tapper (Photo: Screen capture via CNN video)
CNN host Jake Tapper was aghast Friday after listening to President Donald Trump's speech at the Department of Justice.
Tapper called Trump's lengthy rant a "norm-shattering speech," noting that it was "one of the most political speeches given there by a U.S. president."
Trump said he wanted to "turn the page" after four years of President Joe Biden weaponizing the law and the Justice Department against him.
In Trump's new era, Tapper said, "he apparently wants to weaponize the Justice Department against the news media and perceived political opponents."
At one point in the speech, the host noted that Trump turned toward Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to "give them marching orders."
According to Trump, that will be a "far-reaching investigation" into "the corruption system."
"We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government," Trump said.
Tapper noted that Trump's list includes "prosecuting those in the news media who do not cover him glowingly."
Trump specifically named CNN and MSNBC, which he called arms of the Democratic Party. He claimed that they are "corrupt and they're illegal. What they do is illegal."
At another point in the speech, Trump said that the "networks and newspapers" were "no different than a highly paid political operative." He alleged that the coverage is even changing the law "and it just cannot be legal."
Tapper questioned, "Is the president suggesting that it should be a crime for the news media to report accurately that he lost the 2020 election?"
Tapper said the idea that these reporters are committing crimes came "with no evidence and no truth to what he's saying. "
"This is all a piece, of course, in his view of the Justice Department. It started hours after his inauguration when the president pardoned or commuted the sentences of every single rioter who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Nearly 1,600 of them."
This indicated to Tapper that Trump "doesn't seem opposed to the weaponization of the Justice Department. He seems to be objecting to someone else wielding that weapon. Now he has it and no one knows for whom he's coming next."
Tapper acknowledged to his panel of guests that while media bias exists, he scoffed at the notion he's a "pawn" of the Democratic National Committee. He stressed he's brought on Trump administration officials each day this week.
"Beyond that though, he's talking about criminalizing it! This isn't — if it was a grievance session about the media, have at it. By the way, Joe Biden did that too. But this was something else. This was talking about criminalizing it," he said.
See Tapper's comments below or at the link here.
Sarah K. Burris
March 14, 2025
RAW STORY
CNN host Jake Tapper (Photo: Screen capture via CNN video)
CNN host Jake Tapper was aghast Friday after listening to President Donald Trump's speech at the Department of Justice.
Tapper called Trump's lengthy rant a "norm-shattering speech," noting that it was "one of the most political speeches given there by a U.S. president."
Trump said he wanted to "turn the page" after four years of President Joe Biden weaponizing the law and the Justice Department against him.
In Trump's new era, Tapper said, "he apparently wants to weaponize the Justice Department against the news media and perceived political opponents."
At one point in the speech, the host noted that Trump turned toward Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to "give them marching orders."
According to Trump, that will be a "far-reaching investigation" into "the corruption system."
"We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government," Trump said.
Tapper noted that Trump's list includes "prosecuting those in the news media who do not cover him glowingly."
Trump specifically named CNN and MSNBC, which he called arms of the Democratic Party. He claimed that they are "corrupt and they're illegal. What they do is illegal."
At another point in the speech, Trump said that the "networks and newspapers" were "no different than a highly paid political operative." He alleged that the coverage is even changing the law "and it just cannot be legal."
Tapper questioned, "Is the president suggesting that it should be a crime for the news media to report accurately that he lost the 2020 election?"
Tapper said the idea that these reporters are committing crimes came "with no evidence and no truth to what he's saying. "
"This is all a piece, of course, in his view of the Justice Department. It started hours after his inauguration when the president pardoned or commuted the sentences of every single rioter who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Nearly 1,600 of them."
This indicated to Tapper that Trump "doesn't seem opposed to the weaponization of the Justice Department. He seems to be objecting to someone else wielding that weapon. Now he has it and no one knows for whom he's coming next."
Tapper acknowledged to his panel of guests that while media bias exists, he scoffed at the notion he's a "pawn" of the Democratic National Committee. He stressed he's brought on Trump administration officials each day this week.
"Beyond that though, he's talking about criminalizing it! This isn't — if it was a grievance session about the media, have at it. By the way, Joe Biden did that too. But this was something else. This was talking about criminalizing it," he said.
See Tapper's comments below or at the link here.
‘Stage four megalomaniac’: Conservative George Conway warns Trump ‘declared war’ at DOJ
Erik De La Garza
March 14, 2025
President Donald Trump. (Lev Radin / Shutterstock)
Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway warned Friday that inside President Donald Trump’s grievance-filled speech at the Department of Justice hours earlier was a declaration of war on the legal community and U.S. Constitution.
Conway, an attorney and prominent anti-Trump conservative, made the comments just after the president delivered a rare speech during a visit to the DOJ, where he condemned his perceived political enemies and promised to jail opponents who led his sprawling criminal prosecutions.
“It was deranged,” Conway said. “There was really nothing surprising about anything that he said…other than the venue." Conway later added: “He's been saying this, not just since January 20, he's been saying this for years.”
“You can go back and just go to Google and you can Google an article in October of 2024, just before the election, in NPR, and they looked it up and they said, ‘he's over 100 times, has threatened to prosecute his enemies.’ This is Donald Trump. We are at stage four megalomania. He is just doing what he has always told us he wants to do.”
But the difference, MSNBC’s Alicia Menendez pointed out, was that now Trump “actually has resources at his disposal.”
Conway added that Trump is still losing court battles “at such an incredible rate” that government attorneys “can’t keep up with it.” He then used the opportunity to tell viewers what he thinks the speech was really about.
“The man who has sworn to faithfully execute the laws and the Constitution of the United States has declared war on both, and declared war on everybody who is standing up for the laws in the Constitution of the United States,” Conway said. “That’s what's going on here.”
Watch the clip below or at this link:
Erik De La Garza
March 14, 2025
RAW STORY
President Donald Trump. (Lev Radin / Shutterstock)
Lincoln Project co-founder George Conway warned Friday that inside President Donald Trump’s grievance-filled speech at the Department of Justice hours earlier was a declaration of war on the legal community and U.S. Constitution.
Conway, an attorney and prominent anti-Trump conservative, made the comments just after the president delivered a rare speech during a visit to the DOJ, where he condemned his perceived political enemies and promised to jail opponents who led his sprawling criminal prosecutions.
“It was deranged,” Conway said. “There was really nothing surprising about anything that he said…other than the venue." Conway later added: “He's been saying this, not just since January 20, he's been saying this for years.”
“You can go back and just go to Google and you can Google an article in October of 2024, just before the election, in NPR, and they looked it up and they said, ‘he's over 100 times, has threatened to prosecute his enemies.’ This is Donald Trump. We are at stage four megalomania. He is just doing what he has always told us he wants to do.”
But the difference, MSNBC’s Alicia Menendez pointed out, was that now Trump “actually has resources at his disposal.”
Conway added that Trump is still losing court battles “at such an incredible rate” that government attorneys “can’t keep up with it.” He then used the opportunity to tell viewers what he thinks the speech was really about.
“The man who has sworn to faithfully execute the laws and the Constitution of the United States has declared war on both, and declared war on everybody who is standing up for the laws in the Constitution of the United States,” Conway said. “That’s what's going on here.”
Watch the clip below or at this link:
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