Former President Donald Trump dove straight into raising cash for his White House run hours after becoming the first ex-president charged with federal crimes.
Mr. Trump told supporters outside a planned fundraiser at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Tuesday evening that the case should be dropped, warning the “sham indictment” is “destroying the country.”
“Today, we witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country — very sad thing to watch,” Mr. Trump said. “A corrupt sitting president had his top political opponent arrested on fake and fabricated charges of which he and numerous other presidents would be guilty — right in the middle of a presidential election in which he is losing very badly.”
A grand jury indicted Mr. Trump on 37 counts related to illegally retaining classified documents which obstructed justice and making false statements to federal authorities. He pleaded not guilty through his lawyer earlier in the day in Miami.
Mr. Trump is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Polls show him far ahead of his primary rivals but in a tight race against Mr. Biden.
The former president said he kept the classified documents because they included personal items, including pictures, “clothing, memorabilia and much, much more”
SEE ALSO: Trump pleads not guilty to federal charges in classified documents case
“I had not had a chance to go through all the boxes,” he said, “which I was prepared to do, but I have a busy life,” adding that part of the busyness was all the legal efforts directed against him.
The indictment says Mr. Trump ignored multiple opportunities to return the documents to the federal government and even suggested to his lawyers that they should tell the Justice Department that they had no materials that needed to be turned over.
Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and he and his allies have accused President Biden of trying to turn the Department of Justice and FBI into partisan tools.
“This is called election interference and yet another attempt to rig and steal a presidential election,” Mr. Trump said, echoing his debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen. “More important it is a political persecution like something straight out of a fascist and communist nation.”
“This day will go down in infamy and Joe Biden will forever be remembered not only as the most corrupt president in the history of the country, but, perhaps even more importantly, the president with a band of his closest thugs, misfits, and Marxists tried to destroy American democracy,” he said. “But they will fail and we will win bigger and better than ever before.”
Mr. Trump said the 47-page indictment is “ridiculous” and said he had every right to have the documents that he took with him to Mar-a-Lago after losing to Mr. Biden in the 2020 election.
SEE ALSO: Biden could pardon Trump in classified document case, but would pay a ‘political price’
Legal scholars outside of the Trump orbit have had a different take, warning the indictment is damning and could spell trouble for the former president as he looks to avoid spending the rest of his life behind bars.
They say Mr. Trump made matters worse for himself by refusing to return documents despite being given multiple opportunities.
Mr. Trump said he had “unconstrained” power to handle classified documents as he saw fit, and said there is a reason other presidents who kept documents have not been charged.
“Whatever documents a president decides to take with him, he has a right to do so - it is an absolute right,” he said. “That is the law.”
He also said Hillary Clinton and Mr. Biden would be behind bars if they received the same treatment as him.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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