After his arraignment in a Miami federal courtroom last Tuesday, Donald Trump traveled to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey for a campaign fundraiser where he delivered remarks about the Justice Department’s indictment, The Epoch Times reported.
Speaking to his supporters, Trump railed against the Biden administration, accusing the president of a “heinous abuse of power.”
Echoing his many Truth Social posts, Trump also attacked special counsel Jack Smith, whom he claimed was engaged in election interference by prosecuting Joe Biden’s political opponent.
Calling Smith a “Trump hater,” the presidential candidate claimed that the special counsel is known for “political hit jobs.”
Trump accused Smith of breaching attorney/client privilege by obtaining notes from Trump’s former attorney Evan Corcoran, saying the special counsel’s office had done things to his lawyers that were “horrible and unthinkable.”
He claimed that the indictment was “another attempt to rig” the election, but vowed that the attempt would fail and he would win in 2024 “bigger and better than ever before.”
Trump also made excuses for retaining classified documents, claiming that he hadn’t had the chance to go through the boxes since he was so busy.
Trump brought up the 2012 ruling related to audio tapes former President Bill Clinton kept in a sock drawer that a judge said did not have to be returned to the National Archives because the tapes were personal records.
He blasted the use of the Espionage Act in his indictment, arguing that the only relevant law is the Presidential Records Act, which he claimed gave him the right to retain the classified documents.
But according to Jason Baron, the former director of litigation for the National Archives, under the Presidential Records Act, presidents are required to turn over all records once they leave office. Baron told CBS News that the Act distinguishes personal records from documents created or received by the president in his official duties.
