Trump says he took top secret documents from White House ‘very legally’ and ‘wasn’t hiding them’ – and claims he is frontrunner against Biden in polls because voters want ‘my fight’
Former President Donald Trump insisted in a new interview that he “very legally” took classified government documents from the White House.
The 77-year-old spoke with Newsmax’s Greg Kelly on Wednesday to expose the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
“I had to deal with them,” Trump said. ‘We had a great time. And then suddenly they invaded this house. They robbed Mar-a-Lago.”
He denounced the FBI as “corrupt.”
Prosecutors allege that Trump packed hundreds of classified documents into boxes as he prepared to leave the White House in 2021.
Former President Donald Trump denounced the federal government’s handling of his confidential documents case in an interview with Newsmax on Wednesday
Trump noted that President Joe Biden was similarly accused of keeping classified documents but was not charged
After retrieving hundreds of documents from the Florida estate in January 2022, the government contacted Trump, believing he still had materials in his possession.
Trump’s lawyer signed a letter saying that, to her knowledge, no such documents were on site.
But during the raid later that year, more than a hundred other documents were recovered in boxes neatly stored in a ballroom, a bathroom and a storage room.
In Wednesday’s interview, Trump noted that President Joe Biden faced similar accusations of withholding classified documents.
“But they’re letting Biden out,” Trump raged.
‘Something is going on, because they are viciously after me. Then it suddenly turns out that Biden took ten times as many documents with him as I did.’
He claimed he took the materials “very legally” and was “hiding nothing.”
Also in 2022, FBI agents conducted a search of Biden’s Delaware home and discovered that he had kept classified documents from his time as a senator and vice president.
These included files on Afghanistan and drafts of a handwritten memo to former President Barack Obama urging him not to send more troops into the country.
The 77-year-old insisted he took the materials “very legally” and was “hiding nothing”
In a report released last month, special counsel Robert Hur explained that Biden cooperated with the administration, while Trump “obstructed justice” by thwarting their efforts.
Biden was found to have kept secret documents from his time as senator and vice president, including a handwritten memo to former President Barack Obama
In a report released early last month, special counsel Robert Hur compared the two cases and outlined the decision to charge Trump and not Biden.
The refrain was that Trump “obstructed justice” by thwarting the administration’s efforts to recover the documents, while Biden cooperated.
He portrayed the sitting president as an older man with a bad memory, a characterization that was met with resistance on both sides of the aisle.
The differences between the two cases were “obvious,” Hur wrote.
While Biden consented to a search of his property and attended a voluntary interview, the allegations in Trump’s case present “serious aggravating facts.”
“Notably, after being given multiple opportunities to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump reportedly did the opposite,” Hur wrote.
Trump was hit with 32 cases of intentional retention of national defense information, each involving a specific document labeled “SECRET” or “TOP SECRET.”
The information in the files concerned U.S. nuclear weapons and the nuclear capabilities of a foreign country.
Trump faces a total of 40 charges in the case.
Trump was accused of taking documents clearly labeled “SECRET” or “TOP SECRET”
After an initial search turned up hundreds of classified documents, the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago in 2022 and found more than 100 others neatly stored in boxes throughout the building.
During the interview, Trump unleashed his anger on special counsel Jack Smith, the attorney who led the charge to prosecute him in the classified documents case.
Smith, who filed the charges in Washington, D.C. and South Florida, was considered “a total animal” and “a deranged individual.”
Trump then suggested that Smith was acting on orders from the current president.
“He was told to write a song about me because they think this is how Biden gets elected,” Trump said.
“This has never happened before in this country. If I were to compete against it in a nice way, I don’t think I would succeed.’
Trump would certainly praise his administration’s achievements compared to the Biden administration’s perceived failures.
These include “safest border,” “largest economy,” “largest regulatory cuts,” “rebuild the military,” and “created Space Force.”
The Republican Party frontrunner said he had to “fight back” and refused to be “fake.”
“If I didn’t fight hard, if I didn’t fight dirty and do it the way I have to do it, I wouldn’t be being interviewed right now,” he said.
“No, I have to be strong.”
Trump destroyed the infamous Steele Dossier, written by former British spy Christopher Steele, which hinted at ties between his 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin
The 77-year-old emphasized that the country has achieved the “safest border” and “largest economy” during his presidency
Amid the ongoing legal turmoil, Trump insisted he was being targeted by investigators and prosecutors, labeling them “bad people.”
“These people, many of them, you know, they make up false stories like Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. That was a hoax. That took a long time, it took me two years to get rid of that thing,” he spat.
He was speaking in reference to the Steele Dossier, an investigative report prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele, who once headed the Russia desk for MI6.
The dossier details alleged ties between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin.
It also included now-infamous allegations of sexual activity Trump committed in a Moscow hotel.
Just last week, the former president was ordered to pay $382,000 in legal fees to Steele’s company, Orbis Business Intelligence, after unsuccessfully trying to file a lawsuit.