Trump Speaks Out After Pleading ‘Not Guilty’ to New Federal Charges
Former President Donald Trump spoke out for the first time since being indicted on 37 federal charges involving national classified documents found under his possession. The multibillionaire is being accused of illegally taking classified documents to his Florida home, in Mar-a-Lago.
In his defiant speech, delivered at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., Trump unleashed a series of attacks on the indictment process, calling it a “witch hunt” and stating the charges “hurt the country.”
Over 300 classified documents were found in boxes located inside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residency. According to the indictment, the documents were kept in a storage room, shower, office, bedroom, and ballroom.
“When I left the White House and was moving to Florida, the boxes were openly sitting on the White House sidewalk, everyone was taking pictures of them,” Trump explained. “We were negotiating with the National Archives and Records Administration, just as every other president has done, and the next thing I knew Mar-a-Lago was raided by gun-toting FBI agents.”
In a playful tone, Trump painted the Department of Justice accusations as a “spy operation” conspiracy from President Joe Biden’s government.
The Republican presidential candidate is using the indictment as part of his electoral campaign by attacking the Biden administration.
“We are going to evict a totally corrupt President Joe Biden from the White House, and we are going to finish the job that we started,” Trump stated. “The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration weaponized Department of Justice will go down as one of the most terrific abuses of power in the history of our country.”
Trump also insulted the Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is in charge of overseeing the indictment. He referred to him as “deranged.”
On Truth Social, Trump called Smith a “Radical Right Lunatic and Trump Hater, as are all his friends and family.” He also suggested that the special counsel had “’planted’ the information in the ‘boxes’ given to them.”
🚨President Trump lodges the possibility that Biden’s Special Counsel Jack Smith “probably” planted information in the boxes ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/RXJFEO9zaO
— Chadwick Paul (@thechadwickpaul) June 13, 2023
In the past, Jack Smith has stated that “We have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone,” he declared. “Adhering to and applying the laws is what determines the outcome of an investigation. Nothing more, nothing less.”
2020 Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard took to Twitter as well, expressing her opinions regarding enforcing democracy equally across the country.
Trump indictment undermines democracy because if a law is going to be enforced, it should be enforced equally and fairly across the board. The selective use of govt institutions and law enforcement to go after political or personal opponents, undermines the very essence of the… pic.twitter.com/glWdgfKJgP
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) June 15, 2023
Trump could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison following the 37 criminal charges filed against the ex-head of state.
