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Hours after he was criminally charged in a federal courtroom in Miami, Donald Trump returned to his New Jersey club to deliver a barrage of false statements and declare his innocence in front of a throng of supporters.<\/p>\n
The former president, who has routinely used his platforms to project allegations he faces toward his political enemies, lambasted the federal case against him as \u201cthe most evil and heinous abuse of power\u201d under President Joe Biden, who Mr Trump falsely suggested was responsible for charging him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis day will go down in infamy and Joe Biden will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country but perhaps, even more importantly, the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxist tried to destroy American democracy,\u201d Mr Trump said from his golf club in Bedminster on 13 June.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump \u2013 who is formally charged with illegally retaining highly sensitive national defence documents and conspiring to obstruct government efforts to retrieve them for months after he was no longer president \u2013 has admitted that he possessed the documents he is accused of withholding, while falsely characterising the laws that govern them by stating that \u201cwhatever documents the president decides to take with him, he has the right to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
He falsely characterised the classified documents in his possession as his \u201cown presidential papers\u201d and his \u201cown documents\u201d. Dismissing the decades-long prison sentence he could face if convicted, he falsely said that \u201djust about every other president\u201d also removed papers from the White House in the same manner.<\/p>\n
A former president accused of hoarding hundreds of classified documents, disclosing them to others and storing them haphazardly was out of the courthouse and visiting a restaurant in Miami within two hours of his arrival before he boarded a private plane to one of his many resorts and cast himself as the most persecuted man alive.<\/p>\n
After his arrival on the club\u2019s outdoor stage, he absorbed the crowd\u2019s applause while a sound system blasted Lee Greenwood\u2019s \u201cGod Bless the USA\u201d.<\/p>\n
He closed his remarks by repeating a familiar refrain, arguing that his own criminal cases are evidence of a Democratic conspiracy against his supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to silence me because I will never let them silence you,\u201d he said. \u201cI am the only one that can save this nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Trump allegedly broke the law dozens of times by withholding top-secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate months after he left the White House in January 2021, then lied to a grand jury and federal agencies trying to recover them them \u2013 accusations detailed in a sweeping indictment following a special counsel investigation under the US Department of Justice.<\/p>\n
Last week, a grand jury in Florida voted to recommend charges against the former president, who now faces years in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n
He has repeatedly rejected any charges and investigations against him in several jurisdiction as political \u201cwitch hunts,\u201d pointing to the Democratic majorities in New York City \u2013 where was found liable for sexual abuse, hit with a $250m lawsuit from the state attorney general, and criminally charged with more than 30 counts of falsifying business records \u2013 and Atlanta, where his efforts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election are expected to result in state charges this summer.<\/p>\n
The historic charges against the former president raise the prospect of a potential presidential candidate facing at least two criminal cases in state and federal courts.<\/p>\n
His arraignment in federal court comes roughly three months after prosecutors in Manhattan criminally charged the former president with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with so-called hush money payments he reportedly arranged to suppress stories about his alleged affairs.<\/p>\n
He similarly returned to his Mar-a-Lago property hours after his Manhattan criminal court appearance. In his remarks from his estate that night, he lambasted New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the judge overseeing the case, as well as the judge\u2019s family members, and continued his narrative of political persecution.<\/p>\n
Both cases are separate from the Justice Department probe into Mr Trump\u2019s role in the events surrounding January 6 and a Georgia prosecutor\u2019s investigation into his attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election in that state, among many of the mounting legal challenges facing the former president as he seeks the 2024 Republican nomination for another shot at the White House.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump remains the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, and he has insisted that he will remain in the race regardless of any outcome in the cases against him. He has relied on the investigations and indictments to raise money for his campaign, which netted millions of dollars in the days after charges were announced in his New York case.<\/p>\n
But the timeframe for the federal investigation \u2013 and, potentially, other pending cases that could result in criminal charges this year \u2013 could complicate his campaign ambitions.<\/p>\n
A first debate among Republican candidates is set for 23 August. A trial for the New York attorney general lawsuit targeting Mr Trump, his adult children and his business is slated to begin in October. And he is scheduled to return to Manhattan Criminal Court on 25 March \u2013 days after voting begins in primary states.<\/p>\n
This is a developing story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington email Hours after he was criminally charged in a federal courtroom in Miami, Donald Trump returned to his New Jersey club to deliver a barrage of false statements and declare his innocence in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n