00:00Trump caught lying about pushing DOJ to punish political foes.
00:05President Donald Trump pushed back against accusations that his administration is using the Department of Justice to punish political opponents
00:12during a tense exchange with CBS News anchor Nora O'Donnell on 60 Minutes.
00:17O'Donnell directly confronted Trump with the recent indictments of several of his outspoken critics.
00:23James Comey, John Bolton, Letitia James were all recently indicted, O'Donnell said.
00:29There is a pattern to these names. They're all public figures who have publicly denounced you.
00:35Is it political retribution? Trump immediately rejected the idea.
00:39You know who got indicted? The man you're looking at. I got indicted and I was innocent, he said.
00:44And here I am, because I was able to beat all of the nonsense that was thrown at me.
00:48And yet, when you go after a dirty cop like Comey or a guy like Bolton, Letitia James is a terrible, dishonest person in my opinion.
00:55When asked if he directed the DOJ to go after them, Trump firmly denied it.
01:01No, and not in any way, shape or form. No, he said.
01:05Pam Bondi's doing a very good job. Kash Patel's doing a very good job.
01:10However, O'Donnell countered with a fact-checking segment during the broadcast.
01:14In a voiceover, she pointed to a Truth Social post from September, in which Trump addressed Bondi, writing that Comey and James were guilty as hell and declaring justice must be served now.
01:26Within days, both Comey and James were indicted.
01:30And both pled not guilty, as did Bolton.
01:33On September 25th, a grand jury charged Comey with allegedly making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation.
01:41The charges accuse him of lying about whether he authorized an associate to act as an anonymous source to the media regarding the Steele dossier and the Hillary Clinton email probe.
01:51Bolton faces 18 counts related to alleged mishandling of classified documents.
01:55He's accused of sharing more than a thousand pages of information about his time as national security advisor.
02:02Despite mounting criticism, Trump insisted the prosecutions reflect the DOJ's pursuit of crooked officials, not political payback, as he continues to portray himself as the victim of a long-running campaign against him.
Be the first to comment