Former President Trump adhered to a familiar script Tuesday at a campaign event held just hours after he pleaded not guilty in federal court to 37 felony counts related to handling classified documents.
President Trump echoed claims made by himself and his allies in news interviews, speeches and social media posts, seeking to portray the indictments as “election interference” and “political persecution.”
“I did everything right and they prosecuted me,” he told supporters at a golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Tuesday night.
Since the former president revealed last week that he was indicted, he and his allies have made numerous legal and political allegations and spread many lies about the process. Some of Trump’s agents have falsely claimed that Trump did nothing wrong by declassifying the documents, but even if he mishandled certain records, Some argue that he is not the first to do so.
Trump also repeated his criticism on Tuesday of the Justice Department’s decision to indict him under the Espionage Act.
“Espionage laws have been used to go after traitors and spies,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the former president legally keeping his documents.”
Trump has not been accused of being a spy, as stated in the 49-page indictment that was opened last week. He faces 31 counts of willful possession of defense documents, as well as other charges, including obstruction of justice.
Here are some of the claims made by former presidents and their supporters in recent days:
“Political Persecution”
Trump is the first former president to be charged with federal crimes, but it’s also unprecedented for a Biden president as the Justice Department oversees a case against a leading Republican candidate who wants to challenge Biden in next year’s presidential election. I’m in a situation.
Biden and Ati. General Merrick Garland has publicly said they have not been in touch with each other about the incident, and the president is holding off on campaigning over President Trump’s legal issues. But that hasn’t stopped President Trump and his supporters, including members of Congress, from falsely implying Mr Biden was behind the indictments.
“If a president in power can imprison a political opponent, that’s what Joe Biden is going to do…we have no more republic,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (Republican, Missouri) with the law state) said. He holds a degree from Yale University and has served as Attorney General of Missouri. “We have no rule of law, no constitution.”
Mr. Hawley also said Mr. Biden and his “cronies” were trying to “eliminate a major political opponent.”
Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury. Garland appointed veteran U.S. Attorney Jack Smith as a special counsel in November to protect the integrity and independence of the Trump investigation ahead of Trump and Biden’s anticipated presidential run. and a special counsel to oversee the handling of the former president’s classified documents and efforts to overturn Trump’s presidential election. Losing the 2020 election.
Mr. Biden was asked last week what he would say to an American who asked about the independence of the Justice Department.
“I never suggested to the Justice Department what it should or shouldn’t do regarding whether or not to indict,” Biden said Thursday. “I am honest.”
“I could have declassified it as president.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a Trump ally and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, claimed last weekend that he had declassified all documents in Trump’s possession.
“He’s said many times that he’s declassified all this material,” Jordan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” address Sunday. “This is the most political thing I have ever seen.”
The indictment alleges that on at least two occasions, President Trump provided documents he had admitted to being classified to people who did not have clearance to classify them.
In one incident in July 2021, which is said to have been recorded in the indictment, President Trump showed publishers and others what he called an “attack plan” prepared by the Pentagon and said, “As president, I could have declassified it.” It is.” I can’t do it right now, but this is still a secret. ”
There is no precedent for a president to declassify classified information and claim that its handling is immune to federal law.
Asked if he had any evidence that Trump declassified the documents before he left office, Jordan said: “I take the president’s word and he said yes.”
There is no indication that President Trump has declassified these documents, and he has yet to provide proof that he did. The declassification process involves specific procedures, records and logs so intelligence agencies know what information is confidential and what is not.
Some of the documents accuse President Trump of illegally possessing detailed U.S. nuclear information protected from declassification under the Atomic Energy Act. This act has never been contested in court.
Espionage Law and Presidential Records Act
Trump and others argue the former president should never have been indicted under the Espionage Act.
Following the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974, the Presidential Records Act was enacted in 1978, allowing former and future presidents and members of the executive branch to Prevented destruction or preservation of created records as part of policy. role of the White House. For example, if the president scribbles in the margins of a memo, it would normally be considered a presidential record, but a letter or email to a spouse would be personal.
President Trump claimed that the documents at issue in the case were personal records. The indictment paints a different picture. The 31 classified documents found in his possession include top-secret and top-secret documents, including intelligence briefings about foreign countries and information about military operations and capabilities of the United States and others.
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who supports Trump’s re-election, said he believes the president is being overcharged.
“Whether you love Trump or hate him, he’s not spying,” Graham said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “He did not disseminate, leak, or provide any information to foreign powers or the press for the purpose of harming this country.”
The Justice Department did not refer to the Presidential Records Act in this matter. Instead, they argued that the documents were not presidential records, but government records belonging to the intelligence agency that produced the documents.
The Espionage Act provides for the disclosure and handling of classified information and states that anyone who “wrongfully possesses” national defense information and “willfully fails to retain it and deliver it to any U.S. official or employee entitled to receive it.” stipulates that anyone broke the law.
Biden and the Clintons
Some of Trump’s allies claim his legal troubles are driven by politics. After Trump cursed the administration on Tuesday and accused Biden of corruption, Fox News aired Chiron calling the current president a “wannabe dictator.”
Others said they believed President Trump was under investigation for innocent acts committed by others.
Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donald told reporters at the Capitol this week, “Everybody knows there’s an unequal application of the law going on here.”
Mr. Donald referred to a 2010 incident involving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email practices, classified documents in Mr. Biden’s possession, and a recorded conversation with former President Bill Clinton.
Both lawsuits deal with records, but there are differences between Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Trump’s.
The FBI investigated Hillary Clinton’s use of her personal email server in 2016. In November 2016, two days before the election in which Clinton would lose to Trump, former FBI Director James Comey closed the investigation without recommending charges.
But he accused Clinton of being “extremely careless” and said a hostile person may have accessed the server. Comey listed several factors supporting criminal charges, including “apparently willful and willful mishandling of classified information” and “efforts to obstruct justice,” which do not apply to her case. said.
Many of the documents found on Clinton’s email server were classified after being received by Clinton. And at the time, illegal removal and storage of classified documents was a misdemeanor, not the crime for which Trump was charged. (A Law 2018 It was changed to a felony by President Trump’s signature. )
after the news broke it Biden’s personal lawyers found classified documents in his possession earlier this year. Garage at home in Delaware, Athi. General Garland appointed Robert Hare, a U.S. prosecutor appointed by President Trump, as the special counsel to investigate whether Biden mishandled classified documents.Biden’s the team worked together In cooperation with the Justice Department, an investigation into Mr. Heo is ongoing.
In 2010, conservative legal group Judicial Watch sued the National Archives over 79 audiotapes of interviews conducted by historians during the Clinton presidency.
Judicial Watch claimed that the tapes Clinton kept after she left the White House were presidential records that should be turned over to the National Archives under the Presidential Records Act, and that they documented her official duties. Mrs Clinton designated the tapes recorded as part of her oral history as personal records.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the National Archives had no authority to change the designation of the tapes or compel the former president to produce them. Instead, that power remained with the president during his term.
Trump and his allies cling to the case as an example of a perceived double standard and a precedent they argue should apply to Trump.
“Not only was Bill Clinton not even the subject of criminal prosecution based on the tapes he filmed, he won when he was sued for those tapes,” Trump told supporters on Tuesday. rice field.
But the issue in Trump’s lawsuit is not whether the documents were personal or presidential records, but whether he kept documents related to national defense without permission, and other laws such as obstruction of justice conspiracy in the process. whether or not there was a violation of
As President Trump waits for his court appearance date, political opponents within his party have been more critical of his federal charges than they were in response to a lower-level Manhattan grand jury earlier this year. I’m starting to behave.
Former Vice President Mike Pence said this week of the federal lawsuit, “This indictment contains serious charges and the allegations cannot be defended.”
Earlier this month, the Justice Department closed an investigation into Pence’s handling of classified information after classified documents were found in his home and voluntarily returned to the FBI. earlier this year. No charges were recommended.
