Trump, allies intensify attacks on criminal case

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump and his allies are escalating efforts to undermine the criminal case against him and drum up protests as the US former president braces for a history-making federal court appearance this week on dozens of felony charges accusing him of illegally hoarding classified information.

Trump's Tuesday afternoon appearance in Miami will mark his second time in as many months facing a judge on criminal charges. But unlike the New York case some legal analysts derided as relatively trivial, the Justice Department's first prosecution of a former president concerns conduct that prosecutors say jeopardized national security and that involves Espionage Act charges carrying the threat of a significant prison sentence in the event of a conviction.

The Justice Department unsealed on Friday an indictment charging Trump with 37 felony counts, 31 relating to the willful retention of national defense information. Other charges include conspiracy to commit obstruction and false statements.

The indictment alleges Trump intentionally retained hundreds of classified documents that he took with him from the White House to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, after leaving the White House in January 2021.

The material he stored included material on nuclear programs, defense and weapons capabilities of the US and foreign governments and a Pentagon "attack plan", the indictment says. Beyond that, prosecutors say, he sought to obstruct government efforts to recover the documents.

Ahead of his arraignment, Trump ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Justice Department special counsel who filed the case, calling the team of prosecutors "thugs" as he repeated without any evidence his claims that he was the target of political persecution.

He called on his supporters to join a planned protest at the Miami courthouse on Tuesday, where he will be arraigned on the charges.

"We need strength in our country now," Trump said, speaking to his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone in an interview on WABC Radio. "And they have to go out and they have to protest peacefully. They have to go out."

Campaign to continue

Trump told Politico on Saturday that he would continue his presidential campaign, even if he were convicted in the case.

His lawyer Alina Habba argued Trump had done "nothing wrong "and would not take a plea deal to minimize the fallout from the case as he seeks his party's nomination for the 2024 election.

"This is completely politically motivated. It's election interference at its best."

Though Trump and his allies are escalating efforts to undermine the criminal case against him, some still predict that Trump's fate is "grim".

Trump's own former attorney general William Barr said on Fox News that Trump had no right to hold onto such sensitive records.

"I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, … and I think the counts under the Espionage Act that he willfully retained those documents are solid counts," Barr said.

"The idea that the president has complete authority to declare any document personal is … ridiculous," Barr told Fox.

"If even half of it is true, then he's toast … And this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here — a victim of a witch hunt is ridiculous," he added.

The comments from Barr, who was Trump's attorney general from February 2019 through December 2020, are notable and were made at a time when many other prominent Republicans have been hesitant to criticize the former president and current Republican front-runner in the 2024 White House race.

So far, the campaign of US President Joe Biden has not mentioned the indictment.

An April poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 47 percent of US citizens said they believe Trump did something illegal in the classified documents case, slightly more than the 41 percent who said he did something illegal in the New York hush-money case.

Agencies Via Xinhua