Trump Will Visit The Justice Department, Months After His Criminal Prosecutions Were Dismissed

President Donald Trump is set to visit the Justice Department on Friday to rally support for his administration's tough-on-crime agenda, an appearance expected to double as a victory lap after he emerged legally and politically unscathed from two federal prosecutions that were dismissed after his election win last fall .

"I'm going to set out my vision," the Republican president said Thursday about the purpose for a visit the White House is billing as "historic."

The venue selection for the speech underscores Trump's keen interest in the department and desire to exert influence over it following criminal investigations that shadowed his first four years in office and subsequent campaign. The visit, the first by Trump and the first by any president in a decade, brings him into the belly of an institution he has disparaged in searing terms for years but one that he has sought to reshape by installing loyalists and members of his personal defense team in top leadership positions.

Although there's some precedent for presidents to speak to the Justice Department workforce from the building's ceremonial Great Hall, Trump's trip two months into his second term is particularly striking. That's because of his unique status as a onetime criminal defendant indicted by the agency he is now poised to address and because his remarks are likely to feature an airing of grievances over his exposure to the criminal justice system - including an FBI search in 2022 of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, for classified documents.

Trump's visit also comes at a time when Attorney General Pam Bondi has asserted that the department needs to be depoliticized even as critics assert agency leadership is injecting politics into the decision-making process.