Trump says indictment of critics is ‘opposite’ of retribution: ‘I’ve been very mild-mannered’
President Trump in a new interview aggressively defended his Justice Department’s indictments of some of his political rivals, dismissing questions about whether it amounted to retribution.
“No, it’s the opposite. I think I’ve been very mild-mannered,” Trump said in an interview with Norah O’Donnell on CBS News’s “60 Minutes.”
“You’re looking at a man who was indicted many times, and I had to beat the rap,” Trump said during the interview released Sunday. “Otherwise I couldn’t have run for president. They tried to get me not to run for president by going after me and by indicting me.”
O’Donnell pressed Trump on the indictments of former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and former national security adviser John Bolton, all of whom have been outspoken critics of the president.
Trump said he did not direct the Justice Department to go after them, but suggested he wouldn’t have had to.
“You don’t have to instruct ’em because they were so dirty, they were so crooked, they were so corrupt that the honest people we have, Pam Bondi’s doing a very good job. Kash Patel’s doing a very good job,” Trump said, referring to his attorney general and FBI director.
Trump in September appeared to explicitly pressure Bondi to pursue cases against Comey, James and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and he said after Comey was indicted that he hoped there were others.
The president was indicted in four separate cases in 2023, and James brought a civil fraud case against Trump’s business in 2022.
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