[Update] Trump In Court: Former President Slams His 'Sham' Indictment As 'Election Interference;' 'Most Heinous Abuse Of Power' In US History
Former President Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday, at a Miami federal courthouse to 37 federal felony counts related to his alleged refusal to hand over classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence. He did not speak directly to the judge, as his lawyer entered the not guilty plea in the courtroom.
The former president who is also the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election, later spoke to supporters at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, in Bedminster, New Jersey.
"The Espionage Act has been used to refer to traitors and spies," Trump said. "It has nothing to do with a former president legally keeping his own documents."
The former president said he is being threatened with 400 years in prison for "possessing presidential papers, which just about every other president has done."
"The Presidential Records Act does not confer any mandate, duty or even discretional authority on the archivist to classify records under the statute," Trump said. "This responsibility is left solely to the President of the United States—so that’s the decision taken here."
He added: "In other words, whatever documents the president decides to take with him, he has the right to do so -- it’s an absolute right. This is the law."
Trump slammed President Joe Biden -- who is under special counsel investigation for his alleged improper retention of classified records -- and Hillary Clinton, pointing to her destruction of classified emails.
"Hillary Clinton broke the law and she didn't get indicted," the popular former president said. "Joe Biden broke the law, and in many other ways, we're finding out, and so far has not gotten indicted."
He added: "I did everything right, and they indicted me."
Trump went on to point to former President Bill Clinton, saying he "lost the nuclear codes and absolutely nothing was done and lost the nuclear codes."
"The horrific violations of my rights by Crooked Joe Biden's weaponized department of Injustice," he also said.
Trump also slammed hyper-partisan far-left special counsel Jack Smith who's leading the classified documents investigation.
"I've named him deranged Jack Smith," he said. "He does political hit jobs…He looks like a thug."
The former president said Smith is a "raging and uncontrolled Trump hater."
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Special Counsel Jack Smith unsealed the indictment against former President Donald Trump on Friday. The 45th president was indicted on 37 federal counts, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.
Trump valet and aide Waltine Nauta was indicted on six federal counts, detailed in the indictment. The former president first announced he had been indicted on Thursday night.
Trump is scheduled to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday. He maintains that he has done nothing wrong and plans to stay in the 2024 presidential race.
The indictment states that Trump, as president, "had lawful access to the most sensitive classified documents and national defense information gathered and owned by the United States government, including information from the agencies that comprise the United States Intelligence Community and the United States Department of Defense."
"Over the course of his presidency, TRUMP gathered newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards, photographs, official documents, and other materials in cardboard boxes that he kept in the White House," the indictment states. "Among the materials TRUMP stored in his boxes were hundreds of classified documents."
"The classified documents TRUMP stored in his boxes 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," the indictment states. "The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods."
The special counsel claims that Trump showed classified documents to others in 2021 — once in July 2021 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and once in August or September 2021.
"In July 2021, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey (The Bedminster Club), during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance, TRUMP showed and described a ‘plan of attack’ that TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official. TRUMP told the individuals that the plan was ‘highly confidential’ and ‘secret,’" the indictment said. "TRUMP also said, ‘as president I could have declassified it,’ and, 'Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret.'"
In August or September 2021, the special counsel alleges Trump "showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation and told the representative that he should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close."
The FBI, in March 2022, opened a criminal investigation into the unlawful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. The federal grand jury investigation began in April 2022.
"The grand jury issued a subpoena requiring Trump to turn over all documents with classification markings," the indictment states.
The special counsel alleges Trump "endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents" by suggesting that his attorney "falsely represent to the FBI and grand jury" that he "did not have documents called for by the grand jury subpoena."
The indictment says Trump also suggested his attorney "hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena" and directed his aide — defendant Waltine Nauta — to "move boxes of documents called for by the grand jury subpoena, while claiming that he was cooperating fully."
The indictment names Nauta, who served as a White House valet and later a personal aide, as Trump’s "co-conspirator."
Smith says Trump retained classified information originating from the CIA, the Pentagon, the National Security Agency, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Energy Department, the State Department and Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
Smith says Trump retained a document that denoted it was "releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States."
During the FBI’s unprecedented raid of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, the FBI seized 102 documents with classification markings in Trump’s office and storage room.
In Trump’s office, the indictment states there were 27 classified documents — six marked as top secret, 18 marked as secret, and three marked as confidential. In the storage room, 75 classified documents were found — 11 marked as top secret, 36 marked as secret, and 28 marked as confidential.
Trump is charged with 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information —including documents concerning White House intelligence briefings related to various foreign countries; documents concerning military capabilities of a foreign country and the U.S. with handwritten annotation in black marker; a June 2020 document concerning nuclear capabilities of a foreign country; an Oct. 21, 2018, document concerning communications with a leader of a foreign country; an undated document concerning military contingency planning of the U.S.; a document from December 2019 concerning foreign country support of terrorist acts against U.S. interests; an undated document concerning nuclear weaponry of the U.S.; an undated document concerning the timeline and details of an attack in a foreign country; and more.
Trump is also charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. The indictment says the "purpose" of the conspiracy was for Trump "to keep classified documents he had taken with him from the White House and to hide and conceal them from a federal grand jury."
Trump and Nauta were both charged with two counts of withholding document or record; and one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation.
Trump and Nauta were also charged with one count of "scheme to conceal."
Trump was also charged with making a false statement in June 2022 when he said a "diligent search" of Mar-a-Lago was conducted; the search was conducted "after receipt of the subpoena;" and "any and all responsible documents accompany this certification."
"The statements and representations set forth above were false, as Trump knew, because Trump had directed that boxes be removed from the Storage Room before Trump attorney 1 conducted the June 2, 2022, search for documents with classification markings, so that Trump attorney 1’s search would not and did not include all of Trump’s boxes that were removed from the White House; Trump attorney 1’s search would not and did not locate all documents responsive to the May 11 subpoena; and all responsive documents were not provided to the FBI and grand jury with the certification," the indictment states.
"In fact, after June 3, 2022, more than 100 documents with classification markings remained at The Mar-a-Lago Club until the FBI search on August 8, 2022," the indictment states.
Critics and legal experts argue that the case against the former president is an aggressive and corrupt witch hunt lead by Smith who is a corrupt far-left activist lawyer shutdown in the past by the supreme court for his zealous and corrupt tactics in past cases.
Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz argued during a TV interview, that Smith was wrong when he said there is only one set of laws for the country. "He was assigned only one job -- to get Trump. If you put aside all your resources and do what [Supreme Court] Justice [Robert] Jackson warned about 80 years ago -- where he said it's a question of picking the man and then searching the law books or putting investigators to work to pin some offense on him -- that's what they did."
Republicans and conservatives point out that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden have managed to escape prosecutions even after evidence of their crimes have been established.