President Trump delivered a grievance-fueled speech at the Justice Department, reiterating numerous falsehoods about his legal troubles, the 2020 election, and current policies. He claimed that investigations into him constituted a conspiracy against his presidency, despite a lack of evidence supporting this assertion. He falsely labeled the 2020 election as “rigged,” disregarding extensive evidence confirming Biden’s victory. Trump also mischaracterized FBI actions against traditional Catholics and parental protests, framing it as persecution. While he referenced declining illegal border crossings and recent drops in egg prices, his claims about rising crime rates under Biden lacked substantiation.
On Friday, President Trump reiterated several familiar falsehoods during a grievance-laden speech at the Justice Department, straying from his prepared comments to target specific lawyers and prosecutors while criticizing the criminal probes into him.
Framed as a policy speech, his comments covered a range of topics, including immigration, crime, and the cost of eggs.
Here is a fact-check.
His legal challenges
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 is unsupported. Mr. Trump’s assertions reference a variety of investigations and criminal cases that unfolded before, during, and after his first term in office.
The F.B.I. looked into interactions between the Trump campaign and Russian officials; Mr. Trump’s deputy attorney general appointed a special counsel who continued that investigation during his first term; after Mr. Trump left office, he faced charges in four state and federal criminal cases—two related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and another regarding his retention of classified documents post-presidency. Various employees, family members, and associates of Mr. Trump became involved in these cases at different stages.
However, there is no evidence provided by the president and his supporters to substantiate a widespread, multiyear conspiracy to orchestrate these investigations—a process spanning nearly a decade across three presidential administrations—as a political tool against him.
While the F.B.I. privately investigated Mr. Trump’s campaign for connections to Russia in 2016, James Comey, the bureau’s director at that time, publicly disclosed an investigation into Mr. Trump’s presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, a move that critics claimed aided Mr. Trump politically.
Officials within the Trump administration later expressed concern regarding Mr. Trump’s intention to shut down the inquiry into his campaign upon taking office, prompting Rod Rosenstein, Mr. Trump’s deputy attorney general, to appoint a special counsel to insulate the investigation from political interference and to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
Following Mr. Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, he was indicted in four criminal felony cases. Of these, two were filed by state or local prosecutors, thus falling outside the Justice Department’s jurisdiction. The other two criminal cases were supervised by a special counsel chosen to eliminate any appearance of a conflict of interest from President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mr. Trump’s opponent in the 2024 election.
The 2020 election
What Was Said
“The elections, which were totally rigged, are a big factor.”
False. Although Mr. Trump seemed to reference multiple elections, he was likely reiterating his baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. A wealth of evidence—recounts, judicial rulings, and audits by election officials—has 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 improperly retained and disclosed classified materials after leaving the vice presidency in 2017—actions that are felony offenses.
Robert K. Hur, the special counsel overseeing the case, stated in his final report that Mr. Biden did retain and share sensitive materials but concluded that “no criminal charges are warranted” as the evidence did not “establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” In his role as a prosecutor, Mr. Hur could not declare Mr. Biden guilty before a trial, and the president was never formally charged with a crime.
However, Mr. Hur did express doubts about Mr. Biden’s memory and advanced age based on their interviews, hinting that those factors influenced his decision not to pursue charges. He remarked that “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. In one of his initial acts during his second term, Mr. Trump pardoned hundreds of individuals charged in relation to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Many included individuals convicted of violent crimes and weapons offenses, as well as those who had threatened law enforcement officials investigating the incident.
However, Mr. Trump has persistently sought to reframe the narrative surrounding the attack, depicting the rioters as martyrs for his political agenda. He has particularly focused on the case of Rebecca Lavrenz, who marketed herself online as the “J6 praying grandma,” after her conviction on misdemeanor charges related to 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 dropped charges against antifa and Hamas supporters while labeling traditional Catholics as domestic terrorists.”
This needs context. Mr. Trump’s allegations regarding the persecution of parents and Catholics originate from F.B.I. efforts to monitor threats against school boards, educators, and other officials, alongside a leaked memo from an F.B.I. field office that warned of potential extremism among “radical-traditionalist Catholics.”
Mr. Trump and other Republicans have cited these efforts as proof that the Biden administration aimed to target parents opposed to educational policies—such as those inclusive of transgender students and diversity initiatives—and to suppress Christian groups.
In 2021, the F.B.I. established a “threat tag” to identify reports of threats, harassment, and violence directed at school officials, which had seen a notable uptick at the time. Such labels are utilized by the bureau to track trends and disseminate information across offices, commonly applied in cases related to offenses like drug crimes and human trafficking. House Republicans scrutinized these measures.
The memo cautioning against potential extremism within traditional Catholic groups differentiated between those who were radicalized and those who were not, indicating that the potential threat posed by “radical-traditionalist Catholics” constituted a small minority. The memo also suggested gathering information and establishing sources in churches to aid in the identification of suspicious activities.
Following its leak, the memo was retracted, with top officials denouncing it. An internal Justice Department review later found the memo violated professional standards but revealed “no evidence of malicious intent.”
Experts have stated there is insufficient data to support the notion that Catholics are being extensively persecuted by the government due to their faith—much less at unprecedented levels. Mr. Biden is a practicing Catholic who frequently cites his faith to guide his decision-making.
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 seems to reference the instances of a few anti-abortion activists who were convicted of civil rights violations and whom he pardoned shortly after taking office.
The protesters were not prosecuted for praying, as claimed by Mr. Trump, but for conspiring against civil rights and breaching the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act—which criminalizes threats, obstruction, or harm to individuals seeking access to a reproductive health clinic or damage to clinic property. The defendants 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 requires context. Mr. Trump is accurate that illegal border crossings saw a significant decrease since he assumed office. This decline stems partly from the set of restrictions he imposed at the border and partly because Mexico strengthened its migration enforcement following his threats of tariffs. In February, illegal crossings hit a record low of about 8,300.
That said, illegal crossings began to drop after the Biden administration reached a comparable agreement with Mexico over the summer, alongside new restrictions that greatly limited 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 substantiation. It remains unclear which statistics Mr. Trump is referencing in his comparison, although the overall aim appears to depict a country plagued by rampant crime. However, in 2024, while Mr. Biden was still in office, murder rates and crime, in general, showed a decline nationwide. Incidents of robbery and rape were lower than pre-pandemic levels. Although aggravated assaults remained higher compared to the pre-Covid period, they were on a downward trend 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 intentionally allow criminals into the country; however, it did encounter a historic surge of illegal crossings at the border. Officials from Homeland Security have consistently stated that the majority of these crossings involve individuals fleeing poverty and persecution, rather than violent offenders. During the campaign, Mr. Trump effectively highlighted crimes committed by migrants to garner support for his immigration policies. Nonetheless, studies show that immigrants, as a group, are less likely to commit crimes compared to U.S.-born individuals, based on 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 requires context. Evidence indicates that wholesale prices—representing what retailers pay for eggs—have dropped by at least 35 percent since the beginning of the month. This is likely a relief for consumers; however, the exact implications for grocery shelf prices remain uncertain.
Data from the Agriculture Department reflects that wholesale egg prices have drastically decreased since early March after spiking in February, falling from a national average of over $8 for a dozen large white eggs at the start of the month to below $5 this week. The department attributed this decline to “no significant outbreaks” of bird flu during the month and a “rapidly improving” supply situation. (The Justice Department has initiated an antitrust investigation into major egg producers related to pricing, although producers attribute the rise primarily to bird flu.)
Nonetheless, these prices remain considerably higher than long-term averages, and it is yet to be determined how much lower wholesale prices will affect retail pricing. Data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday indicated that in February, egg prices rose by 10.4 percent compared to the previous month, sustaining their upward trajectory.