(Fox News) Former President Trump said President Biden and his family are “being protected” by the “corrupt” and “one-sided” justice system in the United States, while telling Fox News that he should not have been impeached—especially if officials were aware, at the time, of Hunter Biden’s “evil” laptop.
During a Fox News town hall hosted by Sean Hannity in Clive, Iowa Thursday night, Trump railed against the “witch hunts” that he’s faced throughout his political career, while illustrating a double standard between how he is handled versus Biden and his family.
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 have a Ukrainian prosecutor fired and halt an investigation into Burisma Holdings—a Ukrainian natural gas firm where Hunter Biden sat 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 business dealings in Ukraine—specifically Hunter Biden’s ventures with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, and Joe Biden’s successful efforts in having the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, ousted.
Trump’s request came after millions in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen, which Democrats cited as a quid pro quo arrangement. Democrats also claimed Trump was meddling in the 2020 presidential election by asking a foreign leader to look into a Democratic political opponent.
President Joe Biden speaks about the economy at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 77 facility in Accokeek, Maryland, on April 19, 2023. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
But Trump’s questions about Hunter Biden were not unfounded. Hunter Biden, at the time of Trump’s first impeachment, had already been under federal criminal investigation for his tax affairs, prompted by suspicious foreign transactions, for more than a year.
FLASHBACK: EX-UKRAINE PROSECUTOR SAID HE WAS TOLD TO BACK OFF PROBE OF BIDEN-LINKED FIRM, FILES SHOW
That investigation, which is ongoing and being run out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware, was opened in 2018.
“When you look at all of this criminality like the laptop has so much stuff on it,” Trump said during the town hall Thursday. “It’s so bad. It’s so evil, and yet, they don’t want to do anything.”
President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, step off 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 affected the impeachment hoax number one.”
“If they read the laptop, and they had the laptop, it should not have proceeded, because I was right,” Trump said. “It is a dual system of government.”
Trump added: “You can’t have law and order in a country where you have such corruption.”
The House voted to impeach Trump in December 2019 on two counts— abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate voted for acquittal in February 2020. Trump was also impeached in January 2021 on a charge of inciting an insurrection for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot—making him the first and only president to be impeached, and ultimately acquitted, twice in history.
“From the day I got in, I was under siege by people that had been in Washington for many years, put in there by different presidents,” Trump said. “In most cases, people that 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.”
