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A few hours after being criminally charged over retention of classified documents, Donald Trump at his golf resort in New Jersey made baseless claims that Joe Biden orchestrated the federal case against him. Trump said he would appoint a special prosecutor to go after Biden if re-elected More
Hours after facing criminal charges for the alleged mishandling of classified documents, Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters at his golf resort in New Jersey that his indictments were a “corrupt” and “political pursuit” designed to destroy him.Donors and supporters chanted Trump’s name, cheered him on and sang “happy birthday”. “I just got charged,” joked the former president, who turns 77 on Wednesday. “A wonderful birthday.”The former president was in Miami earlier in the day for his arraignment in the classified documents case. Federal prosecutors have accused him of wilfully withholding classified documents and obstructing justice, charging him with 37 federal counts including 31 violations of the Espionage Act.Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges, and was released on bond on the condition that he would not discuss the case with a list of witnesses. On the campaign trail, Trump has been determined to fight back in the court of opinion, keeping a busy schedule of campaign appearances and photo opportunities. In Miami, his campaign alerted reporters that he would be stopping at a restaurant, where faith leaders and fans greeted him with prayers and cheers.In New Jersey, he maintained the defiant message that he had practiced at previous campaign events, including over the weekend after the indictment was unsealed. He baselessly accused Biden of orchestrating the federal charges against him, calling them a “political persecution”. In a remarkable moment of projection, the twice-impeached, twice-indicted president who is being investigated for election interference said Biden “will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but perhaps even more importantly, the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxists tried to destroy American democracy”.Trump also called Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought federal charges against him, “deranged” and a “thug”.He misconstrued the Presidential Records Act, which he has been accused of violating, and balked at charges over “possessing my own presidential papers, which just about every other president has done”. In fact, the classified documents are not Trump’s own – the Presidential Records Act stipulates that all official documents belong to the federal government. And no president in recent history has refused to return hoards of classified documents.The ex-president’s escalating tenor comes with mounting legal troubles. Last month, a grand jury in Manhattan voted to indict Trump and local prosecutors brought criminal charges over hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. Meanwhile Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton county, Georgia, is investigating whether he and his allies illegally meddled in the 2020 elections in the state, and is weighing criminal charges.“I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America Joe Biden,” Trump promised cheering supporters nonetheless. “I will totally obliterate the deep state.”The event Tuesday also served as a fundraiser. The Trump campaign told Politico that it expects to raise $2m at Bedminster. Immediately after his arraignment, a blast to supporters advertised “I stand with Trump” T-shirts, free with a $47 donation, “show the Deep State and the Left that there’s not an attack on the face of this planet that can stop this movement”.A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday found that the vast majority of Republicans – 81% – said the federal criminal charges against Trump were politically motivated, and the indictment did not appear to affect Trump’s leading support in the Republican presidential nomination contest.With the Republican base’s loyal support, Trump has also put his 2024 competitors in a difficult position – they can either choose to prop him up, or risk alienating core voters.“They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you,” Trump said in New Jersey. “And I just happened to be standing in their way.”Fox News, whose hosts had begun to distance themselves from the former president after a $787.5m settlement in defamation lawsuit over their airing of Trump and his supporters’ and US election lies, went back to breathlessly backing him.Over a split screen of Trump’s speech in New Jersey and Biden’s at the White House Juneteenth celebration, the network’s chyron read: “Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested.” More
From 3h agoDonald Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges related to allegedly hoarding government secrets at his Mar-a-Lago resort and frustrating efforts by the federal government to retrieve them at his ongoing arraignment in Miami, Reuters reports.Donald Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr took to social media as their father pleaded not guilty in the courthouse.Eric retweeted a post by the Republican congressman Jim Jordan that said there were different standards of justice for the Trump and Biden families.While Donald Trump Jr praised Ohio senator, JD Vance, for saying he wouldblock all nominees to the Department of Justice over the indictment against the former president.Ohio senator, JD Vance, who was endorsed by Donald Trump in his 2022 race, has said he would block all nominees to the Department of Justice “until Merrick Garland stops using his agency to harass Joe Biden’s political opponents”.In a statement posted to Twitter, Vance called the former president “merely the latest victim of a Department of Justice that cares more about politics than law enforcement” and said he would “grind [Garland’s] department to a halt” in protest of “the unprecedented political prosecution” of Trump.Vance said:
Starting today, I will hold all Department of Justice nominations. If Merrick Garland wants to use these officials to harass Joe Biden’s political opponents, we will grind his department to a halt.
Vance’s hold will just slow down the confirmation process for DoJ nominees, who will now all need to go through a procedural vote and a confirmation vote.As Punchbowl News’ John Bresnahan points out, the Ohio senator’s announcement doesn’t really change anything.As we reported earlier, Donald Trump’s personal valet Walt Nauta was not arraigned today as his lawyer was not admitted to practice in the southern district of Florida.Nauta is now scheduled to be arraigned on 27 June.A navy veteran from Guam, Nauta worked as a White House valet during the Trump administration and moved to Florida following the 2020 election to become Trump’s personal aide.Prosecutors allege that Nauta was a point person for Trump whenever he wanted to access or hide the boxes of classified documents.The indictment states that Trump directed Nauta to transport various documents to Trump’s personal residence and that Nauta helped Trump try to conceal the boxes of top secret information from the FBI. Nauta also texted two Trump employees about the documents, in one case sending a photo of a tipped-over box and classified documents spilled out on the floor of a storage room.Nauta faces several charges including conspiracy and making false statements, such as telling investigators that he didn’t know where the boxes of classified documents were being stored. He is the only person other than Trump charged in the case.Here’s a guide to the most important people involved in the indictment against Trump:Donald Trump has boarded his private plane in Miami, and is heading to his luxury golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.He is expected to make a statement on today’s criminal proceedings at a fundraising event later today.A judge has said E Jean Carroll, the writer who won a $5m jury verdict against Donald Trump last month, can pursue a separate defamation lawsuit against the former president.The writer and former Elle magazine columnist had sought to amend her original defamation lawsuit filed in 2019 so she could try to seek additional punitive damages after Trump repeated statements a federal jury found to be defamatory.A New York jury last month found Trump had sexually assaulted Carroll in a New York department store in 1996. The jury found that the former president “sexually abused” Carroll, defined as subjecting her to sexual contact without consent by use of force, and for the purpose of sexual gratification. But the jury did not find that Trump raped her. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $2m for battery and $3m for defamation.Carroll then sought to amend her separate defamation lawsuit over a similar denial by Trump in June, in which he told a White House reporter that the rape never happened and that Carroll was not his “type”. The revision also sought to incorporate Trump’s comments made in a CNN town hall, where he called Carroll’s account “fake” and labeled her a “whack job”.Here’s a clip of Donald Trump arriving at the Miami courthouse earlier this afternoon for his formal arraignment, where he pleaded not guilty to all counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.Donald Trump’s visit to the famous downtown Miami restaurant Versailles, where he was greeted by supporters, was pre-planned and part of his team’s attempt to control his image, HuffPost’s SV Dáte writes.As the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman points out, Trump is determined to fight the battle in the court of public opinion for as long as possible, including by having his co-defendant Walt Nauta close by him today.After he left court, Fox News showed Trump visiting a cafe in Miami and being greeted like a wronged hero.Supporters gathered around him and prayed for him. Someone shouted: “Jesus loves you!”Trump smiled and waved to the crowd and declared: “Food for everyone!” The crowd erupted in applause and cheers. One yelled: “Keep fighting, sir!”Then, ahead of Trump’s 77th birthday tomorrow, the patrons broke out in a chorus of “Happy birthday dear Donald, happy birthday to you!”The former president remarked:
Some birthday! We’ve got a government that’s out of control.
He then made brief comments about “a rigged deal”, suggesting that “we have a country that is in decline like never before,” and promising to speak more in Bedminster, New Jersey tonight.Someone shouted: “God bless Donald Trump!” as he departed and returned to his motorcade.Donald Trump has stopped by the Miami restaurant, Versailles, after the conclusion of his court hearing, where he told customers that he would pay “for food for everyone”.A group of people appeared to pray as he entered the cafe, while a crowd sang happy birthday to the former president, who turns 77 tomorrow.Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta was also seen in the restaurant.Earlier we reported that a protester was seen running in front of Donald Trump’s motorcade as it departed the courthouse in Miami.Here’s the clip of the man being tackled by security services, as shared by MSNBC’s Manny Fidel: More
The former president has pleaded not guilty to charges related to allegedly hoarding government secrets at his Mar-a-Lago resort and frustrating efforts by the federal government to retrieve them at his arraignment in Miami, Reuters reports
Trump pleads not guilty to 37 federal criminal counts in Mar-a-Lago case More
Donald Trump will make his first court appearance on Tuesday after being charged with 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified documents after leaving the presidency. He is set to appear at 3pm at the federal courthouse in Miami.It will be Trump’s second arraignment this year. In April, he was arraigned in Manhattan on separate criminal charges related to his hush money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels.What is an arraignment and how is it different from an indictment?The document when someone is charged with a crime is called an indictment – the indictment involving Trump was unsealed on Friday. An arraignment is a defendant’s first appearance in front of a judge in a criminal case.The defendant is formally notified of the charges against them and enters a plea. The judge who oversees the arraignment considers whether to grant bail and allow the defendant to be released pending trial. The judge who oversees the arraignment may not be the same judge who oversees the rest of the case.What is going to happen when Trump shows up in court?Trump’s initial appearance is likely to be brief. He will be formally presented with the 37 criminal charges against him and informed of the penalties, and then he can enter a plea. Trump will almost certainly plead not guilty.Defendants can choose to have the indictment read to them in open court, but many choose to waive that in order to get the hearing over quickly, said Barbara McQuade, who served as the US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan from 2010 to 2017.The judge can also set bail and decide to detain a defendant in custody while trial is pending.“The judge will consider the bail issue, but I would be stunned if Trump were held pending trial. A more likely scenario is that Trump will be ordered to surrender his passport and promise to pay some sum of money if he fails to appear,” McQuade said in an email.“The court may consider as a condition of bond some sort of gag order prohibiting Trump from discussing the case, the prosecutor or the judge, but that can be tricky in light of first amendment concerns because Trump is running for president,” she added.Defendants in federal cases are often fingerprinted and have their mugshot taken, McQuade said. But when Trump was arraigned on state charges in New York earlier this year, authorities did not take a mugshot. McQuade said she expected Trump to be fingerprinted. But neither a mugshot nor handcuffs were likely, she said, because people already know what Trump looks like and the former president already has Secret Service protection.Who is the judge overseeing the hearing?Magistrate judge Jonathan Goodman is scheduled to be the judge on duty at the federal courthouse in Miami when Trump appears. He will reportedly oversee the initial appearance, the Miami Herald and NBC News reported on Monday. Magistrate judges handle initial appearances and assist federal judges with other matters.Goodman is a former newspaper reporter and civil litigator who has been a magistrate judge since 2010, according to the Miami Herald. He is well-respected and known for his dry humor, the paper reported.While Goodman will handle Trump’s initial appearance, the overall case will be overseen by US district judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed to the federal bench in 2020. At an earlier stage in the case, Cannon issued a series of rulings in favor of Trump and was later rebuked by an appeals court. Those rulings have prompted concerns that Cannon will favor Trump as she oversees the case.Will the appearance be televised?No. Federal courts do not allow cameras or recordings in the courtroom.Goodman denied a request evening from a coalition of news organizations that filed a request on Monday to allow for limited recording in the courtroom or the hallways leading to the courtroom. They also requested that the court release same-day audio of the proceedings. “Allowing photographs would undermine the massive security arrangements put in place,” Goodman wrote in an order on Monday evening. He said that he expected an expedited transcript of the proceedings to be available on Tuesday.Cecilia Altonga, the chief district judge for the southern district of Florida, also entered an order on Monday barring reporters from bringing any electronics into the courthouse building.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWill Trump be placed in jail before or after the hearing?No. Trump does not pose the kind of flight risk that would require detaining him.Why is the case being heard in Miami?Because Trump kept the classified documents at issue at his home in Mar-a-Lago, the special counsel, Jack Smith, chose to file charges in the southern district of Florida, the federal jurisdiction where Mar-a-Lago is located. That decision was deliberate and is somewhat of a risk. Smith could have tried to file the charges in Washington DC, where a federal grand jury had been investigating the matter, but it would have probably prompted a legal battle over the proper venue for the case. By filing in Florida, Smith took that issue off the table.But filing the case in Florida also brings its own risks. Most notably, the case will be overseen by Cannon, who has issued rulings favorable to Trump in the past. A jury in Miami may also be more conservative and Trump-friendly than a jury in Washington.Who are Trump’s lawyers?It’s not entirely clear who will make up Trump’s legal team. Two of his attorneys abruptly resigned last week after he was indicted.Trump will appear on Tuesday with Todd Blanche, a defense lawyer also representing him in the Manhattan case, and Boris Epshteyn, another lawyer and controversial top aide who has drawn attention from federal prosecutors himself. He may also appear with Chris Kise, a former solicitor general of Florida who has represented Trump in the documents case. Trump was still interviewing local lawyers on Monday to help represent him.What is Trump charged with again?Trump is charged with 31 counts of unauthorized retention of national defense information, a violation of the Espionage Act. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.Trump and Waltine Nauta, his valet, face additional charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, tampering with grand jury evidence and concealing evidence in a federal investigation. Each of those charges is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.Trump and Nauta also face additional charges of making a false statement. Those carry a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison.What happens next?After the appearance, Cannon is likely to set a scheduling order laying out deadlines and a timeline for discovery, motions and a trial. Smith, the special counsel, requested that Trump get a speedy trial last week. But there are likely to be extensive disputes over discovery and classified materials that will drag the case out.“I think an initial trial date of next spring or summer is most likely, but with more adjournments before the trial actually starts if the motions get messy, which seems likely in light of Trump’s combative nature,” McQuade said. “I’m sure [the Department of Justice] will want to try the case before election day and Trump will want to stall. Judge Cannon gets to decide.”Hugo Lowell contributed reporting More
Donald Trump is expected to be represented at his first court appearance to face federal criminal charges for retaining national security materials and obstruction of justice by two of his existing lawyers, after struggling to recruit a local Florida lawyer willing to join his legal defense team.The lawyers making an appearance with Trump on Tuesday will be the top former federal prosecutor Todd Blanche and the former Florida solicitor general Chris Kise, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump’s co-defendant, his valet Walt Nauta, will be represented by Stanley Woodward.Trump and his legal team spent the afternoon before his arraignment interviewing potential lawyers but the interviews did not result in any joining the team in time for Trump’s initial court appearance scheduled for 3pm ET on Tuesday after several attorneys declined to take him as a client.Trump has also seemingly been unable to find a specialist national security lawyer, eligible to possess a security clearance, to help him navigate the Espionage Act charges.The last-minute scramble to find a veteran trial lawyer was a familiar process for Trump, who has had difficulty hiring and keeping lawyers to defend him in the numerous federal and state criminal cases that have dogged him through his presidency and after he left the White House.After interviewing a slate of potential lawyers at his Trump Doral resort, the former president settled on having Kise appearing as the local counsel admitted to the southern district of Florida as a one-off, with Blanche being sponsored by him to appear pro hac vice, one of the people said.Blanche and Kise had dinner with Trump and other advisers on Monday at the BLT Prime restaurant at the Doral.Among the Florida lawyers who turned down Trump was Howard Srebnick, who had discussed defending the former president at trial as early as last week in part due to the high fees involved, but ultimately declined the representation after conferring with his law partners, the person said.The other prominent lawyer who declined to work with Trump was David Markus, who recently defended the Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum against charges that he lied to the FBI and funnelled campaign contributions into his personal accounts, the person said.Trump and his team have interviewed the corruption attorney Benedict Kuehne, who was indicted in 2008 for money laundering before the charges were dropped, the person said. But he has his own baggage as he faces disbarment for contempt of court in a recent civil suit he lost.The other interviews are understood to have been with William Barzee, as well as Bruce Zimet, the former chief assistant US attorney in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.Part of the problem of recruiting new lawyers has been Trump’s reputation for being a notoriously difficult client who has a record of declining legal advice and seeking to have his lawyers act as attack dogs or political aides rather than attorneys bound by ethics rules, people close to the process said.The other concern for the top lawyers in Florida being contacted by Trump’s advisers has been the perceived reputational damage that could come from defending the former president, the people said, not just because of his politics but also because of the strength of the indictment.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBy using Trump’s own taped admissions about retaining national defense information and the witness accounts of his employees, the indictment gave compelling evidence of Trump’s efforts to hoard the country’s most sensitive secrets and obstruct the government’s attempts to get them back.Trump is said to still be searching for a lawyer in the mold of Roy Cohn, the ruthless New York fixer who defended and mentored him before he was later disbarred – and the fear of potentially being asked to take similar actions has been a persistent issue.That fear has loomed large for numerous lawyers Trump’s advisers have contacted, the people said, in particular after Trump might have made Evan Corcoran, another former lawyer who withdrew from his defense in the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation, into a witness against him.According to the indictment, after Trump was issued a subpoena last year seeking the return of any classified documents, Trump took steps to remove boxes of documents from a storage room that Corcoran intended to search through in order to find materials responsive to the subpoena.The steps Trump took to have those boxes removed from the storage room, an episode now at the heart of the obstruction charge, caused Corcoran to certify a false certification to the justice department confirming that no further documents were at the property, the indictment said.As Trump’s search for new lawyers in Florida continues, Blanche is expected to take the lead role in the Mar-a-Lago documents case in addition to leading the team defending Trump against state charges in New York for paying hush money to an adult film star in 2016.Though Kise is expected to appear alongside Blanche in federal district court in Miami, he has primarily handled civil litigation for Trump since he came off the documents case last October and is not expected to be on the trial team proper, a person familiar with the matter said.The scramble to find Florida lawyers came after Jim Trusty and John Rowley, the two remaining Trump lawyers after the earlier resignation of Tim Parlatore and the recusal of Corcoran, became the latest casualties of a legal team undermined by turmoil and infighting, the Guardian previously reported. 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Belligerent and conspiracy-laden rhetoric from high-profile Republican backers of Donald Trump has heightened fears that the former US president’s campaign against his legal troubles could trigger political violence.Fewer than 24 hours after Donald Trump was indicted, Arizona congressman Andy Biggs went on Twitter and used violent language to call for retribution. “We have now reached a war phase,” he said. “An eye for an eye.”Clay Higgins, another Republican congressman from Louisiana, gave militaristic instructions to his followers. “This is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. Hold. rPOTUS has this,” he tweeted, using an abbreviation to refer to Trump as the real president.Higgins added: “Buckle up. 1/50K know your bridges. Rock steady calm. That is all,” he added, using an apparent reference to military-scale maps. (Two days later Higgins tweeted: “Let Trump handle Trump, he’s got this. We use the Constitution as our only weapon. Peace. Hold.”)The statements from the two far-right congressmen – both of whom voted to overturn the 2020 election – underscore the alarming way that violent rhetoric has seeped into mainstream US political discourse in the Republican party especially in the wake of Trump’s indictment.An estimated 12 million adults – 4.4% of the US population – believe violence is justified to return Trump to power, according to a recent survey by the University of Chicago’s Project on Security & Threats (CPOST).“I’ve been reporting on rightwing movements for 20 years. The ‘heat’ is hotter, the blast stronger. And the source more pungent,” said Jeffrey Sharlet, a professor at Dartmouth College and author of The Undertow, a book studying the far right. “The ‘rhetoric’ is specific: while Twitter giggled at what it took to be the ‘word salad’ of Higgins’ statement, those who study militias read it as the call to arms it is.”It is language that has been encouraged by Trump himself since before he was elected but that perhaps peaked around the January 6 attack on the US Capitol as his supporters invaded the building to try and prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election win.As a candidate in 2016, Trump pledged to cover the legal fees of supporters who assaulted protesters at his rallies. “I’d like to punch him in the face,” he said of one protester at a 2016 rally.On 6 January 2021, Trump used violent language as he encouraged his supporters to descend on the US Capitol to block the certification of the electoral college vote. “We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said. What followed was the deadliest assault on the US capitol in American history with five people dying in connection with the attack.There was evidence that Trump’s violent language was inspiring his supporters. On The Donald, a pro-Trump forum, users called for violence in order to restore Trump to the presidency, Rolling Stone reported. “The only way this country ever becomes anything like the Constitution says this country should be is if thousands of traitorous rats are publicly executed,” one user wrote, according to the magazine.A 2020 survey by ABC News found at least 54 criminal cases in which Trump was invoked in connection with violent acts or threats of violence.“What’s happening in the United States is political violence is going from the fringe to the mainstream,” Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago who leads CPOST, told the Guardian earlier this month.Trump allies outside of Washington have also relied on violent language to defend the former president since his most recent indictment for his handling of classified documents after he left the White House.“If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me, and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me,” Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate, said in a speech on Friday to applause. “And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA. That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.”Pete Santilli, a far-right talk show host, called on the military to use zip-ties to detain Biden, put him in the back of a pickup truck and get him out of the White House, according to the New York Times.Another guest on the show said he would “probably shoot” Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, if it were legal, the Times reported. Santilli also previously called for the execution of former president Barack Obama and other officials if Trump was indicted.Sharlet, the Dartmouth professor, said the violent rhetoric got worse each day that it persisted.“Every day it corrodes the hope of democracy. Every day it encourages so-called ‘lone wolves’ – the real militia to whom such not-so-coded signals are broadcast – to take action,” he said. More
Donald Trump’s former attorney general William Barr believes that the former president may be “toast” as he faces a sweeping indictment of 37 federal criminal charges over his alleged mishandling of classified documents.Speaking to Fox News on Sunday following the release of the indictment, Barr, who served as the US attorney general under Trump from 2019 to 2020, said that he was “shocked by the degree of sensitivity at these documents and how many there were”.“I do think we have to wait and see what the defense says and what proves to be true. But I do think … if even half of it is true, then he’s toast … It’s a very detailed indictment and it’s very damning,” said Barr.Barr has largely broken with Trump since he left office. His comments stand in stark contrast to Trump’s tirade against federal prosecutors who he said are pursuing him as part of a “witch-hunt”.Barr added: “The government’s agenda was to … protect those documents and get them out and I think it was perfectly appropriate to do that. It was the right thing to do.”Barr went on to push back against Trump’s narrative that he is the victim of a broader government “hoax”, saying: “Presenting Trump as a victim here, the victim of a witch-hunt, is ridiculous.”“He’s been a victim in the past. His adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims and I’ve been at his side defending against him when he is a victim, but this is much different. He’s not a victim here,” said Barr.According to the indictment unsealed on Friday, Trump stored classified documents in “a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room” at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.It also added that Trump directed Walt Nauta, his valet and aide, to deliberately move boxes of records to “conceal them from Trump’s attorney, the FBI, and the grand jury”.Documents possessed by Trump “included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack”, said the indictment.Barr said: “. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets that the country has. They have to be in the custody of the archivist. He had no right to maintain them and retain them. And he kept them in a way at Mar-a-Lago that anyone who really cares about national security, their stomach would churn at it,” he added.In addition to being charged with mishandling classified documents, Trump has been charged with several counts of obstruction of justice as well as making false statements to investigators.Trump has repeatedly maintained his innocence. In two fiery addresses on Saturday – his first public speeches since the federal indictment against him, the GOP’s top presidential contender told crowds of supporters in Georgia and North Carolina that he “will never be detained”.He also lashed out against federal officials, saying: “Now the Marxist left is once again using the same corrupt DoJ [justice department] and the same corrupt FBI, and the attorney general and the local district attorneys to interfere … They’re cheating. They’re crooked. They’re corrupt. These criminals cannot be rewarded. They must be defeated. You have to defeat them.” More
