Trump Reacts to Indictment, Emphasizes Innocence And Vows To Fight
Former President Donald Trump has reacted to the charges against him, which came via a controversial indictment by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith regarding the supposedly classified documents he had taken to his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida — though Trump has repeatedly stated that he had declassified these documents.
In August of last year, the FBI raided Trump’s home to recover supposedly classified documents — despite the fact that the former president had been cooperating in the matter and the FBI had even provided him with a lock for the room holding the documents. The FBI’s actions have been condemned as political and critics have argued that the raid further solidified arguments that the bureau had been weaponized.
Other politicians who did not have declassification powers — including President Joe Biden, who had documents in multiple unsecure locations from his time as a senator and vice president — have been found to be in possession of classified documents, yet they are not receiving the same treatment as Trump.
In a 49-page indictment, Smith charged Trump with 37 counts — 31 of which involved the willful retention of national defense information. The remainder of the counts include conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing documents or records and making false statements.
Trump reacted to the charges in a video posted on Thursday to his social media platform, Truth Social, where he repeatedly emphasized his innocence while detailing the never-ending witch hunts he has put up with since he announced his first presidential campaign.
“Very sadly, we’re a nation that decline,” he began. “And yet they go after a popular president a president that that got more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country by far and did much better the second time in the election then the first and they go after him on a boxes hoax, just like the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax and all of the others. It’s just been going on for seven years that they can’t stop because it’s election interference at the highest level. There’s never been anything like what’s happened.”
“I’m an innocent man,” Trump continued. “I’m an innocent person. They had the Mueller hoax, the Mueller report, and that came out no collusion after two and a half years. That was set up by Hillary Clinton and Democrats, but this is what they do. This is what they do so well, if they would devote their energies to honesty and integrity, it would be a lot better for our country. They could do a lot better. They could do a lot of great things.”
The former president went on to discuss “what’s happened to our country in the last three years” since Biden took office — stating that everything he accomplished has been reversed, as “we were energy independent. We had a strong military that wasn’t woke. We were doing so well. We were respected all over the world. Had the biggest tax cuts in history, biggest regulation cuts in history.”
Trump noted that they are now attacking him “using what’s called warfare. That’s what it is. This is warfare for the law. And we can’t let it happen. We can’t let that happen.”
“Our country is going to hell and they come after Donald Trump, weaponizing the Justice Department, weaponizing the FBI,” he added. “We can’t let this continue to go on because it’s ripping our country to shreds. We have such big problems, and this shouldn’t be one of them. It’s a hoax. The whole thing is a hoax. Just like Russia, Russia, Russia, just like the fake dossier was a hoax. You saw the Durham report. You saw the Mueller report. It was all a big hoax. You had two impeachments and they lost and we won and we had tremendous support. But that was a hoax and a scam. And now they’re doing it again.”
Trump pointed out that the indictment was just the latest attempt at “election interference,” stating that they are trying to “destroy” his reputation so that the Democrats can prevent him from winning reelection in 2024.
“So I just want to tell you, I’m an innocent man, I did nothing wrong,” he reiterated. “And we will fight this out just like we’ve been fighting for seven years. It would be wonderful if we could devote our full time to making America great again. And that’s exactly what we did. But now again our country is in decline.”
“We’re a failing nation, and this is what they do. I’m an innocent man. We will prove that again. Seven years of proving it and here we go again. Very unfair, but that’s the way it is. I just want to thank everybody. We are doing something very special for our country. We’re putting America first. I always put America first. And that’s why we were in a position. Unfortunately, that position is no longer valid because they’ve done such a poor job. But we’re in a position where we’re going to make America great again. I’m innocent and we will prove that very, very soundly. And hopefully very quickly. Thank you very much,” Trump concluded.
