Trump Issues Final Statement Before Heading to Florida to Face Federal Charges
Former President Donald Trump issued a statement Monday shortly before traveling from New Jersey to Florida, where he is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Tuesday morning concerning allegations of mishandling of classified documents and related charges.
The Secret Service wanted Trump to fly to Florida early Tuesday for security reasons, but he chose to make his way a day ahead of time, The Washington Post reported.
Large-scale demonstrations are expected outside the Miami courthouse where the arraignment will take place.
“Getting ready to head down to Doral in Miami. We must all be STRONG and DEFEAT the Communists, Marxists, and Radical Left Lunatics that are systematically destroying our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He added in another post later Monday, “ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country!”
In a third post, Trump said, “Joe Biden just stated he never spoke to Attorney General Garland about Indicting his POLITICAL OPPONENT, who just happens to be leading him, by a lot, in the polls. Used to say the same thing about Hunter’s business partners, until that was revealed to be a lie! Met with them many, many times. CROOKED JOE & HIS THUGS ARE DESTROYING AMERICA!”
Speaking to a Georgia Republican Party convention over the weekend, the former president called the 37-count indictment the Department of Justice unsealed Friday a “joke” and a “horrible thing for this country.”
“I mean, the only good thing about it is it’s driven my poll numbers way up. Can you believe this?” Trump asked.
BREAKING: Donald Trump flies to Florida where he is set to face over 30 criminal charges in Federal Court tomorrowhttps://t.co/PAiZ4D1jU3
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/ysrIoKHg8R
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 12, 2023
He argued if he were not doing so well in the polls against his fellow Republicans for the party’s nomination and President Joe Biden, “There’d be no witch hunt. There’d be no indictment.”
On Monday, the RealClearPolitics polling average showed Trump ahead of his closest GOP competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 33 percentage points.
Trump was also slightly ahead of Biden in the RCP average by 1.8 percent, although the polling period ended May 31, more than a week before Trump’s indictment.
GOP House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that the 1988 Supreme Court case Department of the Navy v. Egan is the controlling precedent regarding the handling of classified material.
The justices, in a unanimous decision, held that the president has “authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security.”
Thirty-one counts in the DOJ’s indictment of Trump have to do with the mishandling of documents pertaining to national security, allegedly a violation of the 1917 Espionage Act, 18 USC, section 793.
Jordan disagreed, explaining that Navy v. Egan held “the president’s ability to classify and control access to national security information flows from the Constitution. He decides. He alone decides.”
Trump “said he declassified this material. He can put it wherever he wants. He can handle it however he wants,” Jordan said.
“That’s the law. That’s the standard. And [special counsel] Jack Smith can do all this, 37 different counts, whatever he wants to do, but that doesn’t change the standard,” the congressman contended.
CNN host Dana Bash also cited the obstruction charge brought against Trump in the indictment.
“You can’t obstruct when there was not an underlying crime,” Jordan responded.
Meanwhile, Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream that Trump is in legal jeopardy.
“If even half of [the indictment] is true then he’s toast. I mean, it’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning,” Barr said.
“This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here — the victim of a witch hunt — is ridiculous. Yes, he’s been a victim in the past. Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims, and I’ve been at his side defending against them when he is a victim. But this is much different. He’s not a victim here,” he added.
“He was totally wrong that he had the right to have those documents. Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets the country has,” the former attorney general said.
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