Trump lashes out at Justice Department after being indicted

First modification: 06/14/2023 – 10:58

Former President Donald Trump and favorite to be the Republican candidate for the White House in 2024, described Tuesday as an “evil and egregious abuse of power” his indictment in a federal court in Miami for the way in which he managed secret government documents.

Before supporters gathered at his New Jersey golf club, Trump called his successor, Democrat Joe Biden, “corrupt” and accused him of lashing out at him, “his main political adversary” ahead of next year’s presidential elections. , in which he could be his rival if he wins the Republican nomination.

“It is electoral interference,” he snapped.

Trump said he was the victim of a “corrupt” and mercenary “Department of Injustice” of the “radical left.”

“When the main political opponent is arrested, we are no longer in a democracy,” he insisted Tuesday night in the middle of a speech to his supporters.

It is the first time that a former US president has been indicted at the federal level. The prosecution accuses him of having kept confidential documents after leaving the White House, which contained secret information on nuclear weapons.

Hours earlier, a federal judge in Miami read him the 37 charges against him, including “illegal withholding of information related to national security,” “obstruction of justice” and “false testimony.”

“Not guilty”

“We plead clearly not guilty,” Todd Blanche, Trump’s attorney, said during the hearing.

The former president, who turns 77 on Wednesday, remained silent, with a serious face.

“One of the saddest days in the history of our country. We are a nation in decline,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, and repeated that he considers himself the victim of a “witch hunt.” On the same network, he described prosecutor Jack Smith as a “lunatic.”

On leaving the courthouse, in a Cuban restaurant converted into a meeting place for Republican militants, he was showered with crowds.

“Amazing”

A group of supporters of the former president waited for him on Tuesday outside the court wearing red caps with the slogan “Make America Great Again.”

“I can’t believe I’m going through this again,” Lázaro Ezenar told AFP. He is referring to criminal accounting fraud charges filed against Trump in April in upstate New York, stemming from a payment made before the 2016 presidential election to silence a porn actress who claims to have been his lover. .

The case of Miami seems more compromising than that of New York, although Trump has shown more than once that he survives problems politically, when he does not turn them into an opportunity.

In the United States, a law requires presidents to send all their emails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives and another prohibits keeping state secrets in unauthorized and insecure places.

In January 2021, when he left the White House for his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida, Trump took dozens of boxes full of files.

The former president is also under the spotlight for his alleged role in the attack on the Capitol by a mob of followers of the magnate in January 2021.

The criminal trial for the open case in New York will probably be held at the beginning of 2024, in the midst of the campaign for the Republican primaries.

with AFP