Former President Trump said President Biden and his family are “protected” by America’s “corrupt” and “one-sided” justice system, while telling Fox News he should not have been impeached, especially if the officials knew it. at the time, from Hunter Biden’s “evil” laptop.
During a Fox News town hall hosted by Sean Hannity in Clive, Iowa, on Thursday night, Trump criticized the “witch hunts” he has faced throughout his political career while illustrating a double standard between how he is handled in front of Biden and his family.
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“They’re being protected, and it’s a one-sided system; it’s a very unfair system, but they’re being protected,” Trump said.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on April 27, 2023 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The former president referenced then-Vice President Joe Biden’s efforts to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor and stop an investigation into Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company where Hunter Biden served on the board.
During a call in July 2019, Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into the Biden family’s actions and dealings in Ukraine, specifically Hunter Biden’s ventures with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and Joe Biden’s successful efforts to have prosecutor Viktor Shokin ousted.
Trump’s request came after millions in US military aid to Ukraine were frozen, which Democrats cited as a quid pro quo deal. Democrats also claimed Trump was interfering in the 2020 presidential election by asking a foreign leader to investigate a Democratic political opponent.
President Joe Biden speaks on the economy at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 77 in Accokeek, Maryland on April 19, 2023. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
But Trump’s questions about Hunter Biden weren’t unfounded. Hunter Biden, at the time of Trump’s first impeachment, had already been under federal criminal investigation for more than a year over his tax affairs, sparked by suspicious foreign transactions.
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This investigation, which is ongoing and is being run by the United States Attorney’s Office for Delaware, was opened in 2018.
Fox News Digital first reported the existence of some sort of federal investigation into Hunter Biden in October 2020, before the last presidential election. It was then learned that the FBI had subpoenaed the laptop allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden in the course of an existing money laundering investigation.
“When you look at all this criminality like the laptop has so much stuff,” Trump said during the town hall Thursday. “It’s so bad. It’s so bad, and yet, they don’t want to do anything.”
President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, exit Air Force One Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, New York. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Trump said the laptop “even hit the number one impeachment hoax.”
“If they read the laptop and they had it, it shouldn’t have gone on, because he was right,” Trump said. “It’s a dual government system.”
Trump added: “You can’t have law and order in a country where there is so much corruption.”
The House voted to impeach Trump in December 2019 on two grounds: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate voted to acquit him in February 2020. Trump was also impeached in January 2021 on charges of inciting an insurrection over the January 6 Capitol riot, making him the first and only president to be impeached, and finally acquitted, twice in history.
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Meanwhile, Trump shifted, reflecting on the Russia investigation.
“From the day I came in, I was besieged by people who had been in Washington for many years, put there by different presidents,” Trump said. “In most cases, people who were against me.”
He added: “They spied on my campaign, they did all sorts of things. I was under investigation and under siege and so were my people.”
Special counsel John Durham, who was appointed by then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr in 2019 after the release of the Mueller report to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, arrives in U.S. District Court United for the District of Columbia on May 17. , 2022, in Washington, DC (Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)
Trump said if he “wasn’t tough,” he “wouldn’t be here right now.”
“I guarantee if I didn’t retract, I wouldn’t be here,” Trump said. “What they did was so bad, and now they’ve been caught.”
Trump was referring to special counsel John Durham’s final report, which Fox News Digital first reported last month. Durham, after years of investigation, found that the Justice Department and the FBI “failed to uphold their mission of strict fidelity to the law” when it launched the Trump-Russia investigation.
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Durham was appointed by former Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the origins of the FBI’s original Russia investigation, known as “Crossfire Hurricane.” This investigation looked into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Durham also found that the FBI relied significantly on “investigative leads provided or funded (directly or indirectly) by Trump’s political opponents.”
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“So far, nothing of consequence has happened to them,” Trump said.
Durham is expected to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the findings of its investigation later this month.
Brooke Singman is a political reporter for Fox News Digital. You can reach her at Brooke.Singman@Fox.com or @BrookeSingman on Twitter.
