Donald Trump is set to return to the campaign trail a day after the former president was indicted on 37 federal charges related to his handling of classified documents after he left the White House in 2021.
Trump is scheduled to give two speeches at the Georgia and North Carolina state GOP conventions, which were planned before the former president was hit with the charges on Friday afternoon. The speeches mark his first public appearances since the indictment was unsealed, giving Trump an opportunity to unleash an attack against the prosecutors handling the case as well as the Biden administration’s Justice Department.
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The speeches will also foreshadow just how prevalent the federal charges will be to the 2024 landscape, as Trump has already used the indictment in fundraising missives and to rally support among his voter base. The indictment will be at the forefront of his opponents’ campaigns as well, forcing his challengers to defend the party’s front-runner even as they seek to overcome him in the polls.
The 49-page indictment unsealed on Friday details 37 criminal counts against Trump stemming from an investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents that were found at his Mar-a-Lago home after he left office. Some of those classified materials contained information “regarding defense and weapons capabilities” that could put the country’s national security at risk, the filing states.
The indictment accuses Trump of obstructing the FBI investigation into the missing materials by instructing aides to conceal the documents and even going so far as to suggest “that his attorney hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena.”
Trump also showed the documents to individuals without a proper security clearance, according to the indictment. In one instance, the former president acknowledged the materials were “highly confidential” and that “as president, I could have declassified it,” but “now I can’t.”
Among the charges include 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of withholding a document or record, one count of corruptly concealing a document or record, one count of concealing documents in a federal investigation, one count of scheme to conceal, and one count of making false statements and representations.
Trump has already gone on the offense against the indictment, claiming the Justice Department is unfairly targeting him to damage his political strength. Several Republicans have also come to his defense, accusing President Joe Biden of weaponizing the federal government to weaken his top political opponent.
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Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team has indicated they’ll move forward as normal, noting the former president is no stranger to criminal allegations.
“It’s not really a different day for President Trump,” Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, told Fox News. “This is something he’s gone through before.”
