Global Courant
The former US president calls the federal indictment “a political hit” as he garners support at Republican conventions.
Former United States President Donald Trump has criticized his federal indictment by the Justice Department as “ridiculous” and “baseless” in his first public appearances since the indictments were unsealed, portraying the 37 felonies as an attack on his followers.
Speaking at Republican state conventions in Georgia and North Carolina on Saturday, Trump released the indictment as an attempt to damage his chances of returning to the White House as he campaigns for a second term.
“They’ve launched one witch hunt after another to try and stop our movement, to thwart the will of the American people,” Trump claimed in Georgia, later telling the crowd, “They’re not coming after me in the end.” . They’re coming after you.”
The indictment, which was unsealed Friday afternoon, accuses Trump of willfully ignoring Justice Department demands to return classified documents, enlisting aides in his efforts to conceal the documents, and telling his lawyers he will serve a subpoena. wanted to defy for the materials stored in his home.
The charges include allegations that he stored documents in a ballroom and restroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort (Marco Bello/Reuters)
Trump will appear in federal court for the first time in Miami on Tuesday.
‘I will never leave’
Trump remains the frontrunner for the Republican Party’s 2024 nomination despite his mounting legal woes, including criminal charges filed against him in New York in March.
Trump said he will stay in the race even if convicted.
“I’m never leaving,” he told US news site Politico in an interview on board his plane after his speech in Georgia. He also predicted that he would not be convicted and ignored whether he would pardon himself if he won a second term.
Trump received a hero’s reception at the Georgia party convention, where he received loud applause as he dismissed the investigation as “a political hit” and accused his political enemies of launching “one hoax and witch hunt after another” to prevent those are male election.
People listen to Trump at the Georgia Republican Convention in Columbus, June 10, 2023 (Megan Varner/Reuters)
“The ludicrous and baseless indictment by the armed Department of Injustice of the Biden administration will go down as one of the most heinous abuses of power in the history of our country,” he said.
He also used his comments to berate President Joe Biden and his 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, accusing them of mishandling classified information and insisting that he was treated unfairly because he is a Republican.
Trump also dwelt on Georgia’s role in his 2020 defeat, repeating baseless claims that he won the state and defending his attempts to reverse Biden’s victory, which is the subject of another ongoing investigation, this one by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Willis has suggested that any charges will likely come in August.
At the heart of the investigation is a taped phone call in which Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” — just enough to catch up to Biden and reverse Trump’s narrow loss in the state.
Trump has defended the call as “perfect” and on Saturday lashed out at Willis and the special counsel in the Mar-a-Lago case.
He was charged along with valet Walt Nauta, a personal assistant who prosecutors say moved boxes from a storage unit to Trump’s residence for him to view and later lied to investigators about the move.
Nauta traveled with Trump and appeared by his side at a Georgia Waffle House stop where the former president signed autographs, posed for photos and told supporters, “We have done absolutely nothing wrong.”
