ABOVE: Former President Donald Trump prays with pastor Mario Bramnick, third from right, at a restaurant on June 13, 2023, in Miami. Trump appeared in federal court Tuesday on dozens of felony charges regarding classified documents. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Almost as noteworthy as the arraignment of a former President in a Miami court Tuesday, was what news cameras captured afterward – prayer for the former President when Trump met with supporters at a local restaurant.
But at a fundraising event later in New Jersey, Trump called Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith a “lunatic” and a “thug.”
“The prosecutor in the case, I will call it ‘our case,’ is a thug. I’ve named him ‘Deranged Jack Smith,'” Trump said.
Trump pled not guilty to all 37 counts at his arraignment. Some of those charges include the “willful retention of national defense information,” “withholding or concealing documents in a federal investigation,” “false statements,” and “conspiracy to obstruct justice.”
Trump told supporters, “Threatening me with 400 years in prison for possessing my own presidential papers. We witnessed the most evil and heinous abuse of power in the history of our country. Very sad thing to watch.”
CBN News Chief Political Correspondent David Brody says the indictment has made Trump even stronger. Brody told Faith Nation, “We’re living in an America where you have a former president of the United States under indictment and he’s getting stronger in the polls. Why is that exactly? Well, here’s the answer. We have lost trust in our public institutions, and therefore, this idea that the Department of Justice and the FBI and all of this weaponization talk, it’s all real because Americans really don’t have trust in the FBI and DOJ anymore. And Donald Trump is seen as a victim of that.”
But Trump’s former Attorney General, William Barr, told Fox News that in this case, Trump is no victim.
“I have spoken out for 30 years about the abuse of the criminal justice process to influence politics. But this is simply not true. In this particular episode of trying to retrieve those documents, the government acted responsibly and it was Donald J. Trump who acted irresponsibly,” Barr said.
But Heritage Foundation Legal Scholar John Malcolm says the very different handling of Hillary Clinton’s alleged misuse of classified materials shows him the Justice Department has not been neutral.
“Her server was never seized, there was never a search warrant executed. She was never charged. Her attorneys were allowed to go through the material and turn over whatever they were going to turn over, and then they wiped her hard drive clean and destroyed her cell phones so that the FBI was never able to get possession of that information,” Malcolm said.
In a Miami press conference ahead of Trump’s arraignment, fellow GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy repeated his pledge to pardon Trump if elected.
“I’ve demanded that every other candidate in this race either sign this commitment to pardon on January 20, 2025, or else to explain why they are not,” Ramaswamy said.
But some of Trump’s rivals are not supporting the president, saying the charges are serious and the case needs to play out in court.
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