New York City Mayor Eric Adams' indictment this week is completely inconsistent with conspiratorial claims of a “weaponized” Department of Justice floated by former President Donald Trump and his supporters, a Washington Post analyst wrote Thursday.
A five-count indictment accused Adams of bribery, wire fraud and seeking illegal campaign donations from foreign sources. Trump, who has complained for years that he is being politically targeted by the Justice Department under the Biden administration — following his own set of federal charges — joined other right-wing figures Thursday by seizing on the idea that Adams himself was targeted by Democrats when he began complaining about migrants last year.
“You take a look at what they do, these are dirty players. These are bad people,” Trump said at a news conference, while acknowledging he was unfamiliar with the indictment,” according to the Washington Post.
ALSO READ: Why Trump is barely campaigning
But in addition to this week’s indictment of Adams — the first sitting mayor of New York City to be indicted — former Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Hunter Biden have all faced indictment during Biden’s time in office. Those cases, according to the Post, puncture "yet another hole in Donald Trump’s and his allies’ unsubstantiated claims that the Justice Department has been weaponized against their side."
“This is the administration that Republicans say have politically weaponized the DOJ when the opposite is actually true,” said MSNBC host Chris Hayes Thursday evening on his show “All In.”
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said earlier Thursday that Adams' indictment was without regard “to partisan politics” and rejected the idea that the DOJ is focused “on the right or the left, we are focused only on right and wrong.”