Trump counterattacks criminal charges against him: ‘He’s finished’

Trump’s Tuesday afternoon appearance in Miami will mark his second meeting with a criminal judge in months. But unlike the New York case, which some legal analysts have derided as relatively trivial, the former Justice Department’s first prosecution of the former president concerns conduct that prosecutors say endangered national security and includes espionage charges that carry the threat of a significant prison sentence. in the event of a conviction.

Ahead of his indictment, Trump stepped up his rhetoric against the Justice Department special counsel who brought the case calling Jack Smith “insane” and his team of prosecutors “thugs” ahead of his indictment, reiterating his claims that he was the target of political persecution, Associated Press reported. .

The former US president urged his supporters to join a planned protest outside a Miami courthouse on Tuesday, where he will face charges.

“Now we need power in our country,” Trump said, referring to his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone, in an interview with WABC radio. “And they should go outside and they should protest peacefully. They have to go outside.”

“Look, our country needs to protest. We have many reasons to protest. We have lost everything,” he continued.

He also said there are “no circumstances at all” under which he would leave the 2024 presidential race, where he has so far dominated the Republican primaries.

Other Trump supporters came out in his defense with similar remarks, including Cary Lake, the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, who pointedly said over the weekend that if prosecutors “want to get to President Trump,” they “have to work through me.” and 75 million Americans like me.” And most of us are full members of the National Rifle Association.”

Trump’s calls to protest echoed admonitions he made ahead of a New York court appearance last April in which he was charged in connection with the silence payments made during his 2016 presidential campaign, although he complained that those those who came to protest at the time were “so far away that no one knew about them”, and as in that case, he plans to address supporters with a speech on Tuesday evening, a few hours after the trial date.

Trump is expected to fly to Miami on Monday and spend the rest of the day in Florida surrounded by advisers. After his court appearance, he will return to New Jersey, where he has a press event scheduled to publicly respond to the allegations.

Trump supporters also planned to load buses to travel to Miami from other parts of Florida, raising concerns among law enforcement officials who are preparing for possible riots around the courthouse. Mayor Francis Suarez was expected to announce more details on Monday about the preparations, even though as early as Sunday afternoon there were few police outside the courthouse and fencing had not yet been erected in the vicinity, in stark contrast to New York City, where police were planning for the possibility of protests for several weeks, although ultimately no violence occurred.

The Justice Department released an indictment Friday that charges Trump with 37 felony counts, 31 of which involve knowingly holding national defense information. Other allegations include conspiracy to create obstruction and false statements, recalls the Associated Press.

The indictment alleges that Trump deliberately kept hundreds of classified documents that he took with him from the White House to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, after leaving the White House in January 2021. The materials he kept, including in the bathroom, ballroom, bedroom and shower, included materials on nuclear programs, the defense and weapons capabilities of US and foreign governments, and the “Pentagon plan of attack,” the indictment says. Prosecutors said the information, had it been made public, could have put military personnel, confidential sources of information and intelligence-gathering practices at risk.

He also tried to obstruct government efforts to return the documents, prosecutors said, including directing personal assistant Walt Nauta, who was indicted along with Trump, to move the boxes to hide them, and suggesting that his own lawyer hide or destroy documents requested by the subpoena of the Ministry of Justice.

Some fellow Republicans have tried to insist that Trump is being treated unfairly, citing the Justice Department’s 2016 decision not to indict Democrat Hillary Clinton for leaking classified information through a private email server she relied on as secretary of state. But these arguments overlook the fact that FBI investigators found no evidence that Clinton or her aides deliberately violated classified information laws or obstructed the investigation.

New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, speaking on CBS News Sunday, said there was a “huge difference” between the two investigations, but that it “needs to be explained to the American people.”

The Justice Department earlier this month informed former Vice President Mike Pence that it would not press charges over the presence of classified documents at his Indiana home. A separate investigation by the Department of Justice Special Counsel into the discovery of classified documents in President Joe Biden’s home and office is ongoing, although, as in the case of Hillary Clinton, no evidence of obstruction or willful violation of the law has been found.

Trump’s own former attorney general, William Barr, made a grim prediction about Trump’s fate, saying on Fox News that Trump had no right to keep such sensitive records.

“If even half of this is true,” Barr said of the allegations in the indictment, “then he’s finished. I mean, it’s a pretty detailed accusation, and it’s very, very damning. And this idea of ​​presenting Trump here as a victim – a victim of a witch hunt – is preposterous.”