Donald Trump’s Relatives Outline His Defense in White House Records Case

Personal “notes” or declassified documents: relatives of Donald Trump assured on Sunday that the former president was within his rights by taking archive packages when he left the White House, outlining his strategy for defense while denouncing political prosecutions.

The Republican campaign team, which wants to win back the White House in 2024, announced that it would speak Tuesday evening from one of its golf courses in New Jersey, after its first appearance in Federal Court in Miami. (Florida), in a case that sees him charged with 37 counts, including “illegal retention of information relating to national security”, “obstructing justice” and “false testimony”.

On Fox News, one of his lawyers, Alina Habba, confirmed on Sunday that he will plead not guilty in this case, the political consequences of which are difficult to measure for Donald Trump, still the favorite of the Republican primary.

According to an ABC News / Ipsos poll released on Sunday, 47% of a sample of 910 Americans questioned Friday and Saturday think that the lawsuits in this case are “politically motivated”, against 37% who do not think so. At the same time, 61% of respondents believe that these lawsuits are “very serious” (42%) or “fairly serious” (19%), including 38% of Republicans.

The former real estate magnate is accused of having, when he left the White House, took away thousands of documents, some of which were confidential, when he should have entrusted them to the National Archives, and then of having refused to return most of it despite requests from the federal police (FBI).

“Declassified”

In this context, the allies of the 76-year-old candidate have redoubled their efforts on television sets to ensure that he had nothing to be ashamed of. “He has every right to hold classified documents that he had declassified,” assured his lawyer, Alina Habba. “These are notes, things he has the right to take away,” she added.

“The President’s ability to classify and control access to national security information flows from the Constitution (…) He said he declassified this material, he can put it wherever he wants, he can treat as he wishes,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, a close ally, told CNN.

The argument, already put forward by Donald Trump, is undermined in the indictment revealed on Thursday, which reveals that in July 2021 the tempestuous billionaire showed four people without secret-defense clearance “a plan of attack” prepared for him by the Ministry of Defense when he was president.

“As president, I could have declassified them (…) now I can no longer do so, but they are still secrets,” said the man who was no longer, at the time, president of the United States. United, on an audio recording cited by the court document. Also according to the indictment, the confidential documents “included information on the defense capabilities of the United States and foreign countries”, “on the American nuclear programs” and “on the potential vulnerabilities in the event of a attack on the United States and its allies”.

“It is a rather very detailed indictment. And it’s damning,” Donald Trump’s former Justice Minister Bill Barr, now critical of the former president after being one of his allies, told Fox News. “The idea that the president has total authority to decree that any document is personal is ridiculous,” Bill Barr said.

The day after meetings where Donald Trump denounced a “witch hunt”, his allies also redoubled their arguments on this theme. “They try one thing, then they try another, and they keep going after him,” Jim Jordan said on Sunday, repeating that the prosecutions were orchestrated by the Biden camp, while the indictment was adopted by a grand jury of citizens in Florida.

(AFP)