The former president called Jack Smith a “deranged psycho” in a series of posts responding to the charges in the DOJ’s documents probe.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>
Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Dayton International Airport on November 7, 2022 in Vandalia, Ohio.¬†Trump is in Ohio campaigning for Republican candidates, including U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance, who faces U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) in tomorrow’s general election.
On Friday, the Justice Department unsealed a 38-count indictment against Donald Trump and his longtime aide Walt Nauta, laying out the reasoning behind their decision to charge the former president over his hoarding of classified documents after leaving office.
Trump is not coping well.
Special Counsel Jack Smith has leveled 31 counts of “willful retention of national defense information” against Trump, as well as various other charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and making false statements and representations.
Trump raged on social media shortly after the indictment was unsealed, calling the special counsel a “deranged ‘psycho’ that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with ‘Justice,’ other than to look at Biden as a criminal, which he is!”
President Biden is also facing a special counsel investigation regarding a significantly smaller number of classified documents found in several of his offices and home.
Trump also accused the FBI of staging photos of the documents found in his residence. “Everything about the boxes was so neat, orderly, and clean,” he wrote. “Did the FBI tip over the one box the way they “staged” the papers on the floor during the raid of Mar-a-Lago, only to apologize after getting caught?”
The indictment includes pictures of boxes of documents stored haphazardly in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom.
Trump also defended his keeping of classified materials outside of the presidency. “It isn’t America anymore,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Under the Presidential Records Act, I’m allowed to do all this. Under the Clinton Socks Case, the decision is clear. There was no crime, except for what the DOJ and FBI have been doing against me for years.”
The argument probably won’t hold up in court, as Smith’s indictment includes a transcript of a 2021 recording in which Trump discusses a “SECRET” classification-level document with people who lacked security clearance, and admits that he “could have declassified it” as president.
“Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” he added.
Trump rebuffed claims that he had attempted to conceal the documents and obstruct the government’s investigation into them. “I supplied them openly, and without question, security tape from Mar-a-Lago. I had nothing to hide, nor do I now. Nobody said I wasn’t allowed to look at the personal records that I brought with me from the White House. There’s nothing wrong with that,” he wrote.
The claim is not only contradicted by the months-long — and extremely public — dispute between Trump, the National Archives, and federal authorities attempting to recover the documents, but by new details revealed in the indictment.
Smith’s case against Trump includes records of previously unreported communications between the former president and his attorneys, as well as Mar-a-Lago staff. One such exchange came from lawyers discussing a grand jury subpoena with Trump that requested they conduct a search of the Palm Beach resort for any remaining documents. I don’t “want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes,” Trump reportedly said.
“What happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?” Trump added, going so far as to suggest that it would be better if there simply “are no documents” at all.
Shortly after unsealing the charges, the special counsel delivered a brief statement before reporters, emphasizing that Trump should be presumed innocent until established otherwise in a court of law, and stated that he would push for a speedy trial.
Special Counsel Jack Smith opens presser by reminding viewers that the indictment was “voted on by a grand jury of citizens in the Southern District of Florida.”
“Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced. Violations of those laws put our country at risk. Adherence to the rule of law is a bedrock principle of the Department of Justice, and our nation’s commitment to the rule of law sets an example to the world. We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone,” Smith said.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>
