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Donald Trump is poised to make his first public appearances since being handed his bombshell indictment, where he will likely try to rally support after vowing to fight the federal charges.
Still a front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination despite his mounting legal woes, Trump is still set to speak to friendly Republican audiences in both Georgia and North Carolina for consecutive scheduled appearances come Saturday.
Unsealed on Friday, the 49-page indictment accuses Trump, 76, of mishandling classified documents after leaving office in 2021, as well as obstruction of justice.
It contains 37 counts pertaining to those charges, as well as photographs showing mounds of document-filled boxes were illegally stored at his Florida estate for the better part of a year.
Since being handed a summons to appear in a Miami court next week, Trump has repeatedly branded the case to a politically motivated ‘witch hunt’ brought on by his successor Joe Biden. He is expected to use his platform Saturday to rebuke the charges, while adding on to assertions that have painted himself as the victim.
Donald Trump is poised to make his first public appearances since being handed his bombshell indictment, where he will likely try to rally support after vowing to fight the federal charges
It contains 37 counts pertaining to those charges, as well as photographs showing mounds of document-filled boxes were illegally stored at his Florida estate for the better part of a year.
‘Trump is a fighter, and the kinds of people that attend these conventions love a fighter,’ said Jack Kingston, an ex-Georgia congressman who supported Trump in 2016 and 2020, of the former president’s planned speech at a state party convention in his home state.
Meanwhile, in the latest in a steady stream of posts to Truth social aired early Saturday morning, Trump reiterated promises to fight the case against him in court on Tuesday, while sharing a link asking for money to ‘save America’.
His consecutive appearances will come a day after the unsealing of the aforementioned federal indictment, which saw the politician become the first-ever former president to be hit with federal criminal charges.
All 37 counts are felonies, and accuse the former president of willfully defying Justice Department demands to return classified documents.
It further alleges he enlisted aides in efforts to hide the records – and that he even told his lawyers that he wanted to defy a subpoena for the materials stored at his estate.
It claims he stored the documents – 184 of which contained classified information in a ballroom and bathroom at his resort, among other places.
The most serious of the charges – including a prospective violation of the US Espionage Act – carry potential sentences of up to 20 years apiece, though first-time offenders rarely get anywhere near the maximum sentence.
That decision, ultimately, lies with the federal jurist presiding over the proceedings.
‘Trump is a fighter, and the kinds of people that attend these conventions love a fighter,’ said Jack Kingston, an ex-Georgia congressman who supported Trump in 2016 and 2020, of the his planned speech Saturday. The pair are seen together in 2016 shortly after Trump’s win
As for the newly unsealed indictment, all 37 of its counts are felonies, and accuse the former president of willfully defying Justice Department demands to return classified documents
It further alleges he enlisted aides in efforts to hide the records – and that he even told his lawyers that he wanted to defy a subpoena for the materials stored at his estate
In one photo, the cardboard boxes are seen stacked in front of a shower curtain and next to a sink in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom. Some of Trump’s aides simply called the files ‘his papers’
A photo of documents seized during the August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago was published by the Justice Department
It claims he stored the documents – 184 of which contained classified information in a ballroom and bathroom at his resort, among other places
For all that, Trump can expect a hero’s welcome this weekend as he rallies his Republican allies and seeks to cement his status as the leading candidate for the GOP.
That said, in a strange twist of fate, former Vice President Mike Pence is also slated to appear in North Carolina Saturday for his own speech -the first time the former running mates have appeared at the same venue since Pence announced his campaign against his old boss.
For his part, Trump has insisted he committed no wrongdoing, saying, ‘There was no crime, except for what the DOJ and FBI have been doing against me for years.’
The indictment arrives at a time when Trump is continuing to dominate the Republican presidential primary.
Other GOP candidates have largely attacked the Justice Department – rather than Trump – for the investigation, although the indictment´s breadth of allegations and scope could make it harder for Republicans to rail against than an earlier New York criminal case that many legal analysts had derided as weak.
A Trump campaign official described the former president´s mood as ‘defiant’ Friday ahead of his trip. But aides were notably more reserved after the indictment’s unsealing as they reckoned with the gravity of the legal charges and the threat they pose to Trump beyond the potential short-term political gain.
The federal charging document alleges that Trump not only intentionally possessed classified documents but also boastfully showed them off to visitors and aides.
The indictment is built on Trump’s own words and actions as recounted to prosecutors by lawyers, close aides and other witnesses, including his professing to respect and know procedures related to the handling of classified information.
The indictment includes 37 counts – 31 of which pertain to the willful retention of national defense information, with the balance relating to alleged conspiracy, obstruction and false statements – that, taken together, could result in a yearslong prison sentence.
For all that, Trump can expect a hero’s welcome this weekend as he rallies his Republican allies and seeks to cement his status as the leading candidate for the GOP – as he continues to post online about what he claims to be an unjust investigation against him
Meanwhile, in the latest in a steady stream of posts to Truth social aired early Saturday morning, Trump reiterated promises to fight the case against him in court on Tuesday, while sharing a link asking for money to ‘save America’
Trump is due to make his first federal court appearance Tuesday in Miami. He was charged alongside Walt Nauta, a personal aide whom prosecutors say moved boxes from a storage room to Trump’s residence for him to review and later lied to investigators about the movement.
A photograph included in the indictment shows several dozen file boxes stacked in a storage area.
The case adds to deepening legal jeopardy for Trump, who has already been indicted in New York in a hush money scheme and faces additional investigations in Washington and Atlanta that also could lead to criminal charges.
But among the various investigations he has faced, the Mar-a-Lago probe has long been considered the most perilous threat and the one most ripe for prosecution. Campaign aides had been bracing for the fallout since Trump’s attorneys were notified that he was the target of the investigation, assuming it was not a matter of if charges would be brought, but when.
Trump´s continued popularity among Republican voters is evident in how gingerly his primary rivals have treated the federal indictment, which comes less than three months after he was charged in New York in a hush-money scheme stemming from payouts made to a porn actor during his 2016 campaign.
Pence, campaigning in New Hampshire on Friday, said he was ‘deeply troubled’ that Trump had been federally indicted because he believes it will further divide the nation.
Ex Vice President Mike Pence is also slated to appear in North Carolina Saturday. It’s the first time they will appear at the same venue since Pence announced his candidacy
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has promised to fire Christopher Wray, the head of the FBI if he is elected President. During his own remarks at the North Carolina GOP convention on Friday night, DeSantis didn’t mention Trump by name but again made the comparison to Clinton
Pence urged his audience to pray for Trump, his family and all Americans, and promised to uphold the rule of law and ‘clean house at the highest level’ of the Department of Justice, if elected.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s leading GOP rival, unabashedly echoed the former president, decrying the ‘weaponization of federal law enforcement’ and ‘an uneven application of the law.’
Without offering any specific allegation, DeSantis took aim at two favorite Republican targets – Hillary Clinton and Biden´s son, Hunter – and suggested they have escaped federal accountability because of such ‘political bias.’
During his own remarks at the North Carolina GOP convention on Friday night, DeSantis didn’t mention Trump by name but again made the comparison to Clinton.
‘With me, you know, you’ll have a new FBI Director on day one. We’ll clean out all these agencies on day one. We’re going to have a major overhaul.
‘I think there needs to be one standard of justice in this country,’ DeSantis said as he made remarks at a party convention in Greensboro, North Carolina.
He condemned what he termed a ‘weaponization’ of government agencies, although he was careful not to mention Trump by name in his speech.
Wray was nominated to the position by former President Donald Trump in 2017 but he has been criticized by Republican lawmakers for being overly political in his tenure.
Among the declared Republican contenders, only Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson had explicitly called for Trump to end his comeback bid.
