President Donald Trump pledged to “expose” his enemies during a norm-breaking political speech at the Justice Department in which he aired a litany of grievances against the criminal cases he faced and vowed retribution for what he described as the “lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls.” The speech was meant to rally support for Trump administration policies on violent crime, drugs and illegal immigration. But it also functioned as a triumphant forum for the president to boast about having emerged legally and politically unscathed from two federal prosecutions that one year ago had threatened to torpedo his presidential prospects but were dismissed after his election win last fall. Though other presidents have spoken from the Justice Department’s ceremonial Great Hall, Trump’s address amounted to an extraordinary display of partisan politics and personal grievance inside a Justice Department that is meant to be blind to both. He promised to target his perceived enemies even as he claimed to be ending what he called the weaponization of the department. The speech marked the latest manifestation of Trump’s unparalleled takeover of the department and came amid a brazen campaign of retribution already undertaken under his watch, including the firing of prosecutors who investigated him and the scrutiny of agents who investigated supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “Our predecessors turned this Department of Justice into the Department of Injustice. But I stand before you today to declare that those days are over, and they are never going to come back and never coming back,” Trump said to cheers from a crowd that included political allies. “So now, as the chief law enforcement officer in our country, I will insist upon and demand full and complete accountability for the wrongs and abuses that have occurred.” The visit to the Justice Department, the first by Trump and the first by any president in a decade, brought him into the belly of an institution he has disparaged in searing terms for years but one that he has sought to reshape by installing loyalists and members of his personal defense team in top leadership positions. Trump’s unique status as a onetime criminal defendant indicted by the department he was now addressing hung over the speech as he vented, in profane and personal terms, about investigations as far back as the Russian election interference investigation to the more recent inquiries into his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. “We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. We will expose, very much expose their egregious crimes and severe misconduct,” Trump said in a wide-ranging speech that touched on everything from Russia’s war against Ukraine to the price of eggs. “It’s going to be legendary. And going to also be legendary for the people that are able to seek it out and bring justice. We will restore the scales of justice in America, and we will ensure that such abuses never happen again in our country.” Trump’s visit also comes at a time when Attorney General Pam Bondi has asserted that the department needs to be depoliticized even as critics assert agency leadership is injecting politics into the decision-making process. The relationship between presidents and Justice Department leaders […]