(NEW YORK) Personal “diaries,” or declassified documents: Relatives of Donald Trump asserted Sunday that the former president was within his rights by carrying bundles of archives when he left the White House, charting his defense strategy while denouncing political prosecutions.
The Republican campaign team, which wants to regain the White House in 2024, announced that it will speak on Tuesday evening from one of its golf courses in New Jersey, after appearing for the first time in a federal court in Miami (Florida), in a case that sees him accused of 37 counts, including “Unlawfully withholding information related to national security,” “obstruction of justice,” and “perjury.”
On Fox News, one of his attorneys, Alina Habba, confirmed Sunday that he will plead not guilty in the case, the political consequences of which are difficult to measure for Donald Trump, who remains a favorite in the Republican primary.
According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted on Sunday, 47% of a sample of 910 Americans questioned on Friday and Saturday believe that the prosecution in this case is “politically motivated,” compared to 37% who do not think so.
But at the same time, 61% of respondents believe that these lawsuits are “very serious” (42%) or “somewhat serious” (19%), including 38% of Republicans.
The former real estate mogul is accused that, when he left the White House, he took thousands of documents, some of which were classified when they should have been entrusted to the National Archives, and then refused to return most of them nonetheless. Requests from the Federal Police (FBI).
In this context, allies of the 76-year-old candidate have redoubled their efforts on television to ensure he has nothing to be ashamed of.
“Declassified”
His lawyer, Alina Heba, confirmed, “He has every right to keep confidential documents that he removed from her.”
She added, “These are notes, things he is entitled to take.”
The president’s ability to designate national security information and control access to it is derived from the Constitution. […] House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, a close ally of CNN, said he said he had declassified this material, he could put it anywhere he wanted, and he could process it however he wanted.
The argument, already put forward by Donald Trump, is defeated in the indictment unsealed Thursday, which reveals that in July 2021 the windy billionaire showed four people an “attack plan” prepared for him by the Department of Defense when he was president.
As president, I could have declassified them […] The man who was no longer, at the time, the President of the United States, said in an audio recording cited in the court document: “
According to the indictment, the classified documents included “information on the defense capabilities of the United States and foreign countries,” “about US nuclear programs,” and “potential vulnerabilities in the event of an attack on the United States and foreign countries.” allies.
“It’s a very detailed indictment. It’s a very detailed indictment of Donald Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, who is now critical of the former president after being one of his allies,” said Bill Barr on Fox News.
“The idea that the president has full authority to decide on any personal document is absurd,” Barr said.
In the wake of rallies where Donald Trump denounced the “witch hunt,” his allies also doubled down on their arguments on the subject.
“They try one thing, then they try another, and they keep going after it,” Jim Jordan denounced on Sunday, reiterating that the trials were orchestrated by the Biden camp, while the indictment was adopted by a citizen grand jury in Florida.
