Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump announced Thursday that federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice (DOJ) are indicting him on criminal charges following an investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith despite prior claims of prosecutorial misconduct by Trump’s lawyers.
The indictment, which was unsealed on Friday by the Department of Justice, charges Trump with 37 felony counts relating to mishandling of classified documents, obstructing justice, and making false statements.
On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump stated on Thursday:
The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, D.C., with even more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is “secured” by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time.
Trump went on to add that he had been summoned to a federal courthouse in Miami, Florida on Tuesday, June 6th, at 3:00 p.m. and expressed his innocence, while also noting that he is the current favourite in polling for the 2024 presidential race, calling the indictment a “DARK DAY for the United States of America.”
The posts were followed by a video in which the former U.S. leader compared the current charges to the Russia collusion hoax and called the charges “election interference at the highest level,” blaming the Democratic Party.
“Our country is going to hell and they come after Donald Trump, weaponizing the Justice Department, weaponizing the FBI. We can’t let this continue to go on because it’s ripping our country to shreds. We have such big problems and this shouldn’t be one of them. It’s a hoax, the whole thing is a hoax,” he said.
The indictment comes just months after Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg indicted Trump on 34 felonies concerning the falsification of business records relating to alleged payments to pornographic performer Stormy Daniels, payments Trump was said to have made ahead of the 2016 election in order to buy her silence.
The new indictment by the DOJ relates to the FBI raid of Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago that took place in August of last year, an unprecedented move against a former U.S. president that caused outrage among many Republicans and conservatives at the time.
The raid saw the FBI seize a number of classified documents after the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) sent a letter to Democrat congresswoman Carolyn Maloney in February of 2022 that claimed up to 15 boxes of material had been taken to Trump’s Florida residence and that some of the material was classified.
As President, Trump had the ability to declassify any documents and later claimed that he had declassified all of the documents taken to Mar-a-Lago but a CNN report has claimed that a transcript from a 2021 meeting that was recorded and obtained by prosecutors saw Trump admit he had not declassified all of the documents.
According to CNN, Trump was referencing a classified document from the Pentagon that discussed a possible attack against Iran, although CNN admits that the network has not heard the audio and only possesses a transcript of it.
Much like in the case of the initial 2022 raid of Mar-a-Lago, Republican politicians and conservative commentators have expressed outrage over the new indictments.
Republican Senator J.D. Vance attacked Attorney General Merrick Garland stating, “The former president will be indicted for “mishandling” his own government’s classified info. Yet everyone agrees the president has the authority to declassify anything. This is a moral and constitutional joke. Merrick Garland has disgraced this country.”
“Biden is attacking his most likely 2024 opponent. He’s using the justice system to preemptively steal the 2024 election. This is what’s happening, plain and simple,” he added.
President Trump’s son Don Jr. also slammed the DOJ and the administration of President Joe Biden saying, “We’re living in a 3rd world Banana Republic and the only way to stop what the corrupt Biden DOJ is doing is to put @realDonaldTrump back in the White House!!!”
Florida Governor and rival for the Republican nomination for president Ron DeSantis also criticised the indictment saying, “The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society. We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation.”
DeSantis went on to question why the Biden DOJ was “passive” in investigating Hillary Clinton or President Biden’s son Hunter Biden, who has been subject to an investigation by Republicans in the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability regarding allegations of influence peddling by the Biden family.
Conservative commentator and Fox News host Mark Levin called the indictment “disgusting” stating:
President Trump is 76 years old. If the Department of Justice gets its way, he will die in federal prison. Just by one of these counts, conspiracy to obstruct justice, which has a 20-year maximum sentence. This is a disgusting, disgusting mark on American history, for the future to come by these bandits in the White House, by the Democrat Party. They don’t play fair anymore. They want to take control of the country. They want one-party rule. And they have used the Department of Justice and the FBI to get what they want.
Levin went on to add, “They made the decision to interfere in this election. You wanna talk about an insurrection? This is an insurrection! And that’s exactly what’s going on here. Let me go on, Joe Biden is the crookedest crook that’s ever been in the Oval Office.”
