Verification: Vance erroneously asserts that Trump did not target his political adversaries during his presidency
Vance, who stated on a Friday that the attorney general would be the most significant government official beside the president in a potential second Trump administration, was questioned by ABC News host Martha Raddatz during an interview on Sunday regarding the possibility of Trump targeting his political adversaries. Vance responded negatively, then continued, "Martha, he was president for four years, and he didn’t go after his political opponents."
However, the fact remains that Trump secretly exerted significant influence over the Justice Department and other portions of his administration to scrutinize or prosecute numerous political opponents.
Trump engaged in clandestine attempts to charge his political adversaries with criminal offenses. Nonetheless, you don't need to rely on investigative reporting or former administration officials' memoirs to comprehend that Trump pursued political adversaries during his presidency.
He even did it publicly on several occasions.
As CNN reporter Marshall Cohen pointed out, there is a lengthy list of political opponents whom Trump publicly urged the Justice Department and others to scrutinize or prosecute. This list includes not only Clinton during the 2016 election and Biden during the 2020 election but also Biden's son Hunter Biden, former Secretary of State John Kerry, Trump's former national security advisor John Bolton, Obama, unidentified Obama administration officials, the author of a New York Times op-ed critical of Trump, MSNBC host and Trump critic Joe Scarborough, former FBI director James Comey, various former FBI officials, British spy Christopher Steele, and several Democratic congressional representatives, including Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Ilhan Omar, Richard Blumenthal, and Mark Warner.
When asked for comment on this article on Monday, Vance's spokesperson, Taylor Van Kirk, accused the media of having a biased "double standard," stating, "it is indisputable that under Kamala Harris and Joe Biden's DOJ, the Republican nominee for president was targeted and indicted, while under President Trump, nothing like that ever transpired against either of the Democrats he faced off with in 2016 or 2020."
Despite this, it was not for a lack of Trump's attempt.
Trump repeatedly pressured the Justice Department as president to prosecute both Clinton and Biden, in addition to trying to persuade foreign countries to investigate Biden. The fact that the Trump-era Justice Department declined to charge Clinton and Biden does not mean that Trump did not "go after" them or others.
John Kelly, who served as Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security before becoming the White House chief of staff, explained to The New York Times in 2023 that Trump wanted to use the FBI and IRS to target people constantly and persistently.
Furthermore, Vance's claim to Raddatz that Harris had tried to arrest political opponents, as Van Kirk upheld in her Monday statement to CNN, has no supporting evidence in the public domain. The decision to bring two criminal cases against Trump – one over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and another over his retention of classified documents post-presidency – was made by a special prosecutor assigned by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Trump made numerous public calls for investigations and prosecutions of political adversaries.
At times, Trump's calls for investigations, arrests, or prosecutions of his political adversaries seemed more like vague complaints than genuine efforts to prompt official action. However, there were multiple instances where Trump applied explicit, sustained public pressure on the Justice Department in general or his attorney general to pursue his opponents.
For example, in 2017 and 2018, Trump frequently harassed then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions through tweets and public speeches to investigate various allegations against Clinton.
"Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a very weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes," he wrote in one tweet. "So where is the investigation A.G.?" he wrote in another tweet. "So many people are asking why isn’t the A.G. or Special Council (sic) looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes?" he wrote in another tweet. In another tweet, he pointed out allegations against Clinton and then wrote, "At some point, the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper."
Trump made a direct public request in 2019 for Ukraine and China to launch investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden – after he was already under criticism for privately pressuring Ukraine to investigate them. And in 2020, Trump publicly demanded that then-Attorney General William Barr indict Biden, Obama, and unnamed others over their alleged roles in investigating his 2016 campaign's ties to Russia.
"Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we'll just have to go – because I won't forget it. But these people should be indicted. This was the greatest political crime in the history of our country. And that includes Obama and it includes Biden," Trump said.
Trump mentioned in a Fox News interview that he could've hinted at the possibility of indictments against Biden and Obama with Attorney General Barr, stating, "I'll tell you the truth, he's got all the data he requires. They always desire more, more, more, they continue to ask for more. I said, 'You don't need any more. You've got more information than anyone has ever had.'"
Trump allegedly encouraged the Justice Department and his administration officials to pursue charges against his political adversaries, as per former officials and news reports. Although it's challenging to establish a concrete link between his requests and the department's activities, it appears that some of his demands were implemented.
According to Mueller's report, Sessions admitted that Trump pressured him in 2017 to forgo his recusal from 2016 election-related investigations to prosecute Clinton. Although Sessions didn't comply with this demand, he announced in March 2018 that he had appointed a federal prosecutor to examine various allegations against Clinton, who ultimately was not charged.
The New York Times reported this year that Trump informed his aides in April 2018 that if Sessions didn't prosecute Clinton and Comey, he would take action against them himself, prompting his White House counsel to draft a memo outlining the president's limited powers.
Bolton detailed in his 2020 book that Trump was fixated on having Kerry prosecuted for alleged violations of an infrequently enforced law by engaging with Iranian officials after leaving office to maintain the nuclear agreement Kerry had helped negotiate. Bolton wrote that Trump continually prompted Attorney General Barr to begin prosecution.
The same week that Trump posted a tweet suggesting Kerry might have violated this law, the Justice Department tasked federal prosecutors with investigating Kerry, according to Berman's book. An unidentified Justice Department official reached out to one of the prosecutors to strengthen the case against Kerry; however, he was never charged.
In 2019, Barr fulfilled Trump's desire to investigate those who investigated him by delegating a federal prosecutor to explore the origins of the FBI's Russia-related probe and the 2016 election. By late 2020, with a few months remaining in Trump's presidency, Barr promoted this prosecutor, John Durham, to the status of a special counsel.
During early 2020, Barr delegated a different federal prosecutor to collect information from the public, including from then-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, concerning allegations about the Bidens and Ukraine, a topic that had been both a public and private focus for Trump.
Despite Trump's denial during the interview with ABC News, there are numerous instances where he publicly urged investigations or prosecutions of his political opponents. For example, he frequently pressured Attorney General Jeff Sessions through tweets and public speeches to investigate various allegations against Hillary Clinton.
Regardless of whether these calls resulted in official actions, Trump's repeated public requests indicate a deliberate attempt to scrutinize his political adversaries, as seen in his direct public request for Ukraine and China to launch investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden.
