President Donald Trump speaks at the Justice Department March 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — In a rare appearance by a president at the U.S. Justice Department, Donald Trump delivered a meandering speech Friday promising a “proud new chapter in the chronicles of American justice” and drumming on his campaign trail refrains of the department’s “weaponization” against him and his supporters.

Less than a year ago, the president was a defendant in two Justice Department cases and made history after becoming a convicted felon in New York state. Trump told the crowd of department officials, law enforcement officers and lawmakers his administration is “restoring fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.”

“It’s going to be legendary,” Trump said.

The president also insinuated he may keep the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington, D.C., after a drawn-out battle over whether it would move to Maryland or Virginia.

Calling out law enforcement officers in the room, Trump said “with me in the White House, you once again have a president who will always have your back.”

Republican senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana were among the crowd, even though the Senate had not yet voted to extend government funding that was set to expire in less than eight hours.

Trump’s hour-long speech in part addressed crossings at the southwest border and deaths from illicit fentanyl. At one point he invited to the stage a mother who lost her son in 2022 to a pill laced with a deadly amount of fentanyl.

But the president’s remarks often meandered into topics unrelated to the Justice Department’s mission, including several minutes about his reelection endorsement from Indiana basketball legend Bobby Knight.

Classified documents case

At numerous points during the speech, Trump lambasted the DOJ’s investigations into his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Florida estate and his attempted conspiracy to overturn former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

He said department officials “broke the law on a colossal scale, persecuted my family, staff and supporters, raided my home, Mar-a-Lago, and did everything within their power to prevent me from becoming the president of the United States.”

The government, following the election, dropped its appeal of Trump’s classified documents case, citing a longstanding DOJ policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents.

Florida federal District Judge Aileen Cannon had tossed the case on the grounds that the Justice Department had unlawfully appointed and compensated special counsel Jack Smith.

“The case against me was bullshit, and she correctly dismissed it,” Trump said.

Smith also dropped the 2020 election subversion case against Trump, which probed his alleged role in inciting the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump granted clemency to the nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants just hours into his second presidency, undoing the largest-ever investigation executed by the Justice Department.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has since overseen the firings and demotions of FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors who undertook Jan. 6 investigations and the two cases against Trump.

During his Friday remarks Trump thanked his former personal lawyers. Todd Blanche, who defended Trump in the Justice Department cases, is now No. 2 at the agency.

‘We have to keep on showing up’

At a press conference afterward outside the department, Democratic Maryland U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, alongside a police officer who was at the Capitol on Jan 6 and former DOJ officials, struggled to talk over a heckling protester. The event was livestreamed on C-SPAN.

Raskin, who sat on the House select committee to investigate the Capitol attack, described Trump’s speech as a “tirade” and praised Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn for “defending democracy.”

“He pardoned everybody and let them know that it’s OK. Now listen, I don’t know what accountability looks like, I don’t know what this fight is going to continue to look like, but we have to keep on showing up,” Dunn said.

One of Biden’s last acts was issuing broad preemptive pardons to members of the Jan. 6 committee as well as Dunn and three other officers who testified before the panel.

Over 140 police officers were injured in the riot.

Brendan Ballou, a former DOJ prosecutor who investigated the Jan. 6 attack, said while the administration is “perfectly happy to talk about the pardons, it is less willing to talk about some of the things that are happening in this building right now.”

He alleged DOJ officials are dismantling or weakening other divisions, including antitrust and anticorruption.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond for comment.

The last time a president made a public appearance at the department was former President Barack Obama in 2014.

A Milwaukee police squad in front of the Municipal Court downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)

Activists in Milwaukee are calling for more community control of police as the public learns about a Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) officer arrested by federal authorities last week. Juwon Madlock, who had 10 years of service at MPD, is accused of a variety of crimes stemming from his alleged relationship with a local gang. 

A federal complaint accuses Madlock — among other things — of possessing a machine gun, selling guns and ammunition to local gang members and using police databases to furnish intelligence to those gangs about rivals and informants. The complaint alleges that Madlock worked with “a violent street gang in Milwaukee” identified by federal authorities as the “Burleigh Zoo Family.” It’s unclear whether the gang chose the name or whether it was bestowed on the group by law enforcement investigators. 

The Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, a local group which has called for accountability and community oversight of law enforcement, released a statement noting that Madlock appears on Milwaukee County’s Brady List of  officers with problematic histories. A searchable database compiled by TMJ4 states that at the time Madlock was placed on the Brady List, he was still employed at MPD. 

Records related to Madlock’s disciplinary history maintained by the Fire and Police Commission (FPC) mention that Madlock and another officer, Benjamin Bender, violated integrity standards for failing to investigate a reported shooting from a victim who came into MPD’s District 7 in 2021. Representatives from the FPC didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression questions why an officer with Madlock’s history was allowed to remain on MPD, and whether other officers who have violated police standards continue to serve on MPD. “We need these questions answered now, and we need concrete steps from Chief Jeffrey Norman to rectify this situation,” the group said in a statement.

A press release from MPD states that Chief Norman “expects all members, sworn and civilian, to demonstrate the highest ethical standards in the performance of their duties and was extremely disappointed to learn about the misconduct in this case. Chief Norman wants to remind the public that everyone is afforded the right of due process under the law, and as such, are innocent until proven guilty.”

Madlock was arrested on March 12, after agents from the FBI office of Milwaukee and MPD’s Internal Affairs division “made contact” with him, according to the department’s press release. The trail to Madlock’s door began on Feb 13, when MPD’s Special Investigations Division, tactical units, and federal task force officers of the FBI’s “Milwaukee Area Safe Streets Task Force” executed a search warrant of a home in the Milwaukee suburb of Greenfield. Their target, 29-year-old Cobie Hannah Jr., was wanted by the Milwaukee County sheriff according to the federal complaint. Although Hannah was ordered not to have weapons, when officers searched his  home, they allegedly found firearms, stolen license plates and false vehicle registrations. 

After seizing and searching an iPhone and laptops, investigators found a text message chain from a number they later linked to Madlock using “law enforcement and open-source databases,” the complaint states. The text messages reveal conversations in which Madlock discusses selling guns and ammunition to members of the “Burleigh Zoo Family” according to the complaint. The messages also discuss what investigators believe are plans to steal cars. 

In separate instances, Madlock appeared to be providing gang members with information about police movements and patrols, so that alleged gang members who were wanted could avoid law enforcement. Some of the messages suggested Madlock used law enforcement databases to renew plates which were also used by gang members to avoid law enforcement. One of the more damning messages suggests that Madlock used law enforcement information databases to identify informants and find addresses to arrange shootings among rival gangs. The unchecked use of such databases by law enforcement, particularly when it comes to surveillance of citizens without a clear public safety reason, is a growing concern among privacy and civil liberties groups.

After Madlock was brought into custody, he allegedly spoke with investigators about the text messages and what they meant. A federal search warrant was served on Madlock’s North Side Milwaukee home. A handgun “affixed with a machinegun conversion device’ was found in the basement. When asked about the various guns he allegedly offered for sale, the complaint states, Madlock claimed the weapons were owned by his parents and brother. Madlock’s father allegedly told law enforcement later that the guns were indeed his, but that his son did not have permission to sell them, and that he didn’t know about the machine pistol.

The complaint also mentions that Madlock claimed that Hannah was “a source of information for him, in his capacity as a police officer.” Madlock did not sign Hannah up as an official confidential source, however, and had not taken the required training to use informants. Nor could he show investigators instances — such as through text messages —- of times when Hannah served as an informant or source of information. Instead, the federal complaint states, “the situation was reversed: MADLOCK, the police officer, is providing information to HANNAH, the wanted fugitive. MADLOCK did not have a cogent response.” 

The Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression says the case points to a need for greater community oversight of the police. Although Madlock was arrested over the course of the federal investigation, he remained on the force for years after being flagged on the Brady List as an officer with integrity issues. The fact that the integrity concern was raised over Madlock’s lack of investigating a reported shooting raises further red flags in the eyes of community members. “If the Chief of Police will not hold his own police officers accountable, we need a mechanism through which the people of Milwaukee, the people who are policed, can hold them accountable,” the Alliance said in a statement.