Trump rails against indictment in his first public remarks since its unsealing
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday cast his federal indictment as “election interference,” telling Georgia Republicans it represented an abuse of power by the Biden administration.
“This is a political hit job. Republicans are treated far different at the Justice Department than Democrats,” said Trump, who offered no evidence for his claims, at a state GOP convention in Columbus.
The remarks were his first public response since the DOJ unsealed its indictment laying out the government’s case that the former president and an aide mishandled classified documents.
Trump, who faces a total of 37 counts, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, told the Georgia audience that any other Republican at the top of the party’s 2024 ticket would face similar scrutiny and legal challenges.
“Somebody else? They’re not going to withstand that fire,” he said.
Trump, who is expected to address a GOP convention in North Carolina later Saturday, denied wrongdoing and described the probe as “a sad day for the country.”
“Our people are angry,” he said of his second indictment in less than three months, with probes into election interference efforts in Georgia and his actions surrounding January 6, 2021, in Washington threatening to pose further legal troubles.
He again described special counsel Jack Smith as “deranged” and said the case against him was a “joke.”
Walt Nauta was traveling with Trump in Georgia Saturday: Trump’s body man, who was federally indicted alongside the former president, traveled with him Saturday, according to the press pool.
Nauta faces six counts, including several obstruction and concealment-related charges stemming from his alleged actions around the mishandling of classified documents.
The former president is scheduled to appear Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Miami, where he will be read the charges against him.
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