Facts First: Vance’s claim is false. As president, Trump publicly and privately pressured the Justice Department, and others in his administration, to investigate or prosecute numerous political opponents.
Trump made many public calls for investigations and prosecutions of political opponents
On some occasions, Trump’s calls for investigations, arrests or prosecutions of his political opponents sounded more like vague gripes than sincere attempts to prompt official action. On numerous occasions, though, Trump applied explicit, sustained public pressure on the Justice Department in general or his attorney general to pursue his opponents.
For example, in 2017 and 2018, Trump frequently harangued then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in tweets and public remarks to investigate various allegations against Clinton.
“Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes,” he wrote in one tweet. “So where is the investigation A.G.,” he wrote in another tweet. “So many people are asking why isn’t the A.G. or Special Council (sic) looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes,” he wrote in another tweet. In yet another tweet, he noted allegations about Clinton, then wrote that “at some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper.”
Trump made a direct public request in 2019 for Ukraine and China to launch investigations into Joe Biden and Hunter Biden – after he was already facing criticism for privately pressuring Ukraine to investigate them. And in 2020, Trump publicly demanded that then-Attorney General William Barr indict Joe Biden, Obama and unspecified others over their supposed roles in the investigation into his 2016 campaign’s links to Russia.
“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we’re going to get little satisfaction unless I win and we’ll just have to go – because I won’t forget it. But these people should be indicted. This was the greatest political crime in the history of our country. And that includes Obama and it includes Biden,” Trump said.
Trump privately pressured the Justice Department
Trump suggested in that Fox News interview that he might have raised the subject of Biden and Obama indictments with Barr, saying, “I’ll be honest with you, he’s got all the information he needs. They want to get more, more, more, they keep getting more. I said, ‘You don’t need any more. You’ve got more stuff than anybody’s ever had.’”
Trump privately pressured the Justice Department and Trump administration officials to go after other political opponents, according to former officials and news reports. And it appears he was sometimes successful, though it’s impossible to definitively prove a direct relationship between his demands and the department’s actions.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/15/politics/fact-check-vance-trump-political-opponents/index.html