‘This Is Not a Porn Star Thing’: Trump 1st Former US President Indicted on Federal Charges
Republican appears to issue January 6-like attempt to invite violence
Indicted on seven federal charges related to holding sensitive and classified federal documents after his presidency ended —including violation of the Espionage Act — Donald Trump is now the first former American president to be indicted in federal court.
Although Trump's attorneys have been briefed on the charges facing their client, the indictment itself remains under seal until the former president appears in court.
These new charges are even more serious than those he's already been hit with earlier this year in New York related to a hush-money scheme to keep quiet an extramarital affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels, analysts said.
These new charges also come as Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to return to the White House.
“What I would say to everybody who is watching this, nobody has seen this indictment. We don’t know what’s in it. Republicans are jumping out there saying this is all about Joe Biden. Joe Biden had nothing to do with this. This is the special prosecutor,” said Van Jones, a former advisor to President Barack Obama and a CNN political commentator, referring to Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the investigations into Trump's activities. “This is not a porn star thing. This isn’t robbing the piggy bank of your charity. This is the federal government talking about possible espionage and a presidential candidate that has gamed this thing out to get away with it by running for office. If that’s what’s happening here, we should take this very, very seriously.”
These latest charges stem from boxes of sensitive federal documents which Trump carried with him from the White House, to his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida after the end of his term in office.
FBI agents ultimately retrieved documents from the Florida estate last year after Trump refused to cooperate with a federal subpoena for the documents.
Trump, predictably, went to his Truth Social platform to complain about the charges, in which he said that he had been summoned to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.
“Tuesday, you’re going to have the opportunity for our court system to do its job. It could be a circus because already, on TRUTH Social, he’s giving out the date, the time, the place,” Jones said. “He may as well be organizing another January 6 next week. It is very, very dangerous what he’s doing.”
Many prominent figures on the political right, predictably, have been expressing outrage over this latest Trump indictment, but others felt differently.
“First of all, the idea of Trump getting indicted by the DOJ makes me downright gleeful,” said “Never Trumper” commentator Ana Navarro, referring to the federal Justice Department.
This latest indictment represents a victory for the rule of law, according to Neal Katyal, an attorney and former acting solicitor general during the Obama administration.
“It’s a good night for the rule of law. Good news for the Justice Department. Good night for the Justice Department. It’s a good night for equality under the law. And the principal that no one is above the law. Which is foundational to what this country is about,” he said during an on-camera appearance Thursday night on MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell's program. “At the same time, I think it’s also a sad moment for the country. It’s not sad because Donald Trump is somehow being unfairly targeted, or treated unfairly, it said because it really underscores the extreme damage Donald Trump did to the institution of the presidency, and to this country as a whole, Lawrence.”
Please support our work…
Also, please subscribe…