by John Solomon
Former President Donald Trump says his two most recent legal strikes — suing CNN for defamation and taking the Biden Justice Department to the Supreme Court — aim to restore fairness in America’s courts of law and public opinion.
In an interview Tuesday evening hours after his legal team took its battle over presidential records to the nation’s nine justices, Trump told the “Just the News, Not Noise” television show that the case was about erasing politics from DOJ and the FBI.
He said government agencies treated him far differently than Hilary Clinton, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush when disputes about classified records, missing records or personal materials arose and that his healthy poll numbers are a sign Americans understand he’s being treated differently.
“It’s a weaponization by the DOJ,” Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with Just the News and Real America’s Voice. “And I think it’s just something that has to stop. So we fight that battle, I think we’re doing very well in that battle.
“And I think the public agrees with us because you know better than anybody, my poll numbers are higher now than they ever were. So I think the public understands what’s happening.”
Trump’s poll numbers have risen since he left office, and a Washington Post-ABC News poll since the Mar-a-Lago raid found Trump was leading President Joe Biden 48% to 46% among registered voters in a hypothetical 2024 matchup.
Trump on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court in a motion filed with Justice Clarence Thomas to intervene in the fight over records the FBI seized from his Florida home.
His motion asked the high court to issue an emergency order that would restore a court-appointed special master’s authority over about 100 documents with classification markings found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate during the Aug. 8 search.
Such an order would allow the former president to argue the memos are covered by executive privilege or were declassified before he left office.
“Any limit on the comprehensive and transparent review of materials seized in the extraordinary raid of a president’s home erodes public confidence in our system of justice,” his lawyers argued.
Trump suggested records that were shipped from the White House to his estate when his presidency ended were never at risk, making the raid in August unnecessary.
“They talk about us. I think we were the most secure place,” he said. “You take a look at this, we were probably the most secure.”
As for CNN, Trump said he chose to sue because the network has reported many things that weren’t true about him and was unwilling to consider his side of stories over disputes such as Russia collusion or election integrity.
“It’s just like incredible, they just say anything,” he said of CNN.
Trump’s lawsuit alleged that CNN incited hatred for Trump and stepped up its defamation because it fears the former president will run again in 2024.
“CNN’s campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander against the Plaintiff has only escalated in recent months as CNN fears the Plaintiff will run for president in 2024,” the suit argued.
The network thus far has refused to comment on the litigation.
Trump also weighed in on the gravity of the Russian war on Ukraine, insisting as he does on the campaign trail that it would not have happened if he were still president.
He suggested the best geopolitical leverage the United States could exercise against Russia President Vladimir Putin is to rapidly ramp up energy production and drive down the price of oil, devastating Moscow’s economy while benefiting Americans weary of historically high gas prices.
“Think of this, we were energy independent,” he said of the record his administration achieved. “We were soon going to be energy dominant. We would have been bigger than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. We were going to supply the world, and [the Biden administration] just ended it. It was shocking.
“And that started the rise of inflation. It also gave Putin so much money, because remember, we had it down to $40 a barrel. So that’s another way of stopping it. By the way, if you could get it down to $40 to $50 a barrel, he wouldn’t be able to have the war, it would stop. Other than that, you’d have to talk to him, and you have to reason with him.”
– – –
John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist, author and digital media entrepreneur who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of Just the News.
