President Trump repeated a number of well-trodden falsehoods on Friday in a grievance-fueled speech at the Justice Department, veering from prepared remarks to single out lawyers and prosecutors and assail the criminal investigations into him.
His remarks, billed as a policy address, were wide-ranging, touching on immigration, crime and the price of eggs.
Here’s a fact-check.
His legal troubles
What Was Said
“They weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to try and thwart the will of the American people.”
“They spied on my campaign, launched one hoax and disinformation operation after another, 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.”
This lacks evidence. Mr. Trump’s claims refer to a wide array of investigations and criminal cases that occurred before, during and after his first term as president.
The F.B.I. investigated contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials; Mr. Trump’s deputy attorney general appointed a special counsel that continued that investigation during his first term; after Mr. Trump left office, he was then charged in four state and federal criminal cases — two concerning his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and one related to his retention of classified documents after he left office. Employees, family members and allies of Mr. Trump became entangled in those cases at various points.
But the president and his supporters have provided no evidence of a vast, yearslong conspiracy to coordinate these investigations — taking place over nearly a decade across three presidential administrations — as a political weapon against him.
While the F.B.I. privately investigated Mr. Trump’s campaign for ties to Russia in 2016, James Comey, the bureau’s director at the time, publicly announced an investigation of Mr. Trump’s presidential rival at the time, Hillary Clinton, in a move that critics said had aided Mr. Trump politically.
Officials in the Trump administration later expressed concern about Mr. Trump’s desire to shut down the investigation of his campaign after he took office, and Rod Rosenstein, Mr. Trump’s deputy attorney general, appointed a special counsel to shield the investigation from political pressure and avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest within the government.
After Mr. Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, Mr. Trump was indicted in four criminal felony cases. Of the four cases, two were brought by state or local prosecutors, meaning that the Justice Department has no control over them. His two other criminal cases were overseen by a special counsel, appointed to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Trump’s rival in the 2024 campaign.
The 2020 election
What Was Said
“The elections, which were totally rigged, are a big factor.”
False. Though Mr. Trump appeared to refer to multiple elections, he was most likely reprising his lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. A mountain of evidence — recounts, court rulings and audits by elections officials all confirmed Mr. Biden’s electoral victory in 2020.
Biden and classified documents
What WAS Said
“We also terminated the clearances of the Biden crime family and Joe Biden himself. He didn’t deserve it. In fact, he was essentially found guilty. But they said he was incompetent. And therefore, let’s not find him guilty.”
False. Mr. Trump was referring to a special counsel investigation into whether Mr. Biden had retained and disclosing classified material after leaving the vice presidency in 2017 — acts that are felony offenses.
Robert K. Hur, the special counsel in the case, said in his final report that Mr. Biden had retained and shared sensitive material, but concluded that “no criminal charges are warranted” because the evidence did not “establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” Mr. Hur, in his role as a prosecutor, could not rule that Mr. Biden was guilty before a trial, and the president was never charged with a crime.
But Mr. Hur did raise doubts about Mr. Biden’s memory and advanced age based off their interviews, and suggested that had played a role in his decision not to recommend charges. He wrote, “Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol
What Was Said
“I pardoned hundreds of political prisoners who had been grossly mistreated. We removed the senior F.B.I. officials who misdirected resources to send SWAT teams after grandmothers and J6 hostages.”
This needs context. Mr. Trump, in one of his first official acts in his second term, pardoned hundreds of people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Many of those included people who had been convicted of violent crimes and weapons charges. Others had threatened law enforcement officials who had investigated the attack.
But Mr. Trump has long sought to rewrite the history of the attack, portraying the rioters as martyrs to his political cause. He has also singled out the case of Rebecca Lavrenz, who promoted herself online as the “J6 praying grandma,” for her conviction on misdemeanor charges in connection with the riot. There is no evidence that Ms. Lavrenz was the target of a police SWAT raid.
Parents, anti-abortion activists and Catholics
What WAS Said
The Biden administration “set loose violent criminals while targeting patriotic parents at school board meetings; they drop charges against antifa and Hamas supporters while labeling traditional Catholics as domestic terrorists.”
This needs context. Mr. Trump’s claims about the persecution of parents and Catholics stem from F.B.I. efforts to track threats made against school boards, teachers and other officials, as well as a leaked memo prepared by an F.B.I. field office that warned of the potential for extremism for adherents of a “radical-traditionalist Catholic” ideology.
Mr. Trump and other Republicans seized on both efforts as evidence that the Biden administration sought to target parents concerned about education efforts opposed on the right — like inclusive policies toward transgender students and diversity initiatives — and to repress Christian groups.
In 2021, the F.B.I. had created a “threat tag” to apply to reports of threats, harassment and violence against school officials, which had risen significantly at the time. Such tags are used by the bureau to track trends and share information across offices, and are commonly used for crimes like drug offenses and human trafficking. House Republicans investigated and criticized those efforts.
The memo warning of potential extremism among traditional Catholic groups had distinguished between those radicalized and not radicalized, saying “radical-traditionalist Catholics” who could potentially pose a threat were a small minority. The memo had also suggested gathering information and developing sources within churches to help identify suspicious activity.
The memo was later withdrawn after it became public, and the nation’s top law enforcement officials repeatedly denounced it. An internal Justice Department investigation later concluded that the memo had violated professional standards but showed “no evidence of malicious intent.”
Experts said at the time that they were unaware of any data to support the idea that Catholics were being widely persecuted by the government for their faith — let alone at record levels. Mr. Biden is a practicing Catholic who often cited his faith for guidance on decisions in office.
What WAS Said
“They imported illegal alien murderers, drug dealers and child predators from all over the world to come into our country while putting elderly Christians and pro-life activists on trial for singing hymns and for saying prayers.”
False. Mr. Trump appeared to be referring to the cases of some anti-abortion activists who were convicted of crimes against civil rights, and who Mr. Trump pardoned soon after taking office.
The protesters were not put on trial for praying, as Mr. Trump claimed, but for conspiring against civil rights and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act — which makes it a crime to threaten, obstruct or injure a person seeking access to a reproductive health clinic or to damage clinic property. The defendants in the case had blockaded an abortion clinic in Washington, D.C., in October 2020.
Immigration and crime
What WAS Said
“Our first full month in office, we achieved the lowest level of illegal border crossings ever recorded … it turned out that we really didn’t need new legislation. All you needed was a new president.”
This needs context. Mr. Trump is correct that illegal border crossings have declined drastically since he took office. That is in part because of a series of restrictions he imposed at the border and in part because Mexico, in response to his threat of tariffs, bolstered its migration enforcement. In February, illegal crossings reached a record low of about 8,300.
That said, illegal crossings began to decline after the Biden administration over the summer reached a similar agreement with Mexico and the United States imposed new restrictions that sharply curtailed asylum applications.
What WAS Said
“Under the Biden regime, average monthly homicides increased by 14 percent, property crimes rose tremendously, violent crime went up at least 37 percent that they know of, rapes soared by 42 percent, car theft rose by 48 percent and robbery surged 63 to 100 percent. They don’t even know what the number is.”
This lacks evidence. It is unclear what statistics Mr. Trump is referring to in making his comparison, though the general intent is to paint a picture of an America experiencing soaring crime. But in 2024, when Mr. Biden was still in office, murders and crime in general declined in the country. Robberies and rapes were lower than they were before the pandemic. Aggravated assaults were still elevated from the pre-Covid days, but they trended down in 2024.
What WAS Said
“They didn’t even know why. They imported illegal alien murderers, drug dealers, child predators, from all over the world to come into our country.”
False. The Biden administration did not purposely allow criminals into the country, but it did experience a historic level of illegal crossings at the border. Homeland Security secretaries have long said most of the crossings are people fleeing poverty and persecution rather than violent criminals. During the campaign, Mr. Trump effectively highlighted crimes migrants had committed to build support for his immigration policies. But immigrants overall are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States, according to studies of arrest and incarceration rates.
Egg prices
What WAS Said
“By the way, price of eggs is down 35 percent in the last week and half.”
This needs context. Signs suggest that wholesale prices, meaning the price retailers pay to procure eggs, have dropped by at least 35 percent since the start the month. That is most likely a relief for consumers, though it remains unclear what exactly it will mean for prices in grocery aisles.
Data from the Agriculture Department shows that wholesale egg prices have been falling sharply since the beginning of March after soaring through February, from a national average of over $8 for a dozen large white eggs at the start of the month to under $5 this week. The department cited “no significant outbreaks” of bird flu so far this month and “rapidly improving” supply. (The Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into major egg producers over prices, though producers point to bird flu as the key culprit.)
These prices are still well above long-term averages, though, and the extent to which lower wholesale prices are showing up in retail prices remains to be seen. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released on Wednesday showed that in February, egg prices rose 10.4 percent from the previous month, continuing their climb.
