By Sarah Arnold | Townhall.com
Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour
The latest charges against former President Trump reveal who is on the Republican's side and who wishes he would leave the political spotlight.
After news broke that Trump would be indicted a second time on charges over him reportedly having classified documents in his possession, several Republicans ran to defend him from the political witch hunt while others remained silent.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called the indictment "unconscionable" and said that he "stand[s] with President Trump against this grave injustice."
Trump's most significant 2024 rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), even rushed to condemn the charges claiming that there has been an "uneven application of the law," suggesting officials are overly "zealous in pursuing Trump."
Billionaire Elon Musk also commented on the ongoing target against the former president, saying there is "far higher interest in pursuing Trump" than any other candidate.
"There does seem to be a far higher interest in pursuing Trump than other people in politics," Musk tweeted hours after the news broke. "Very important that the justice system rebut what appears to be differential enforcement or they will lose public trust."
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk encouraged GOP presidential candidates to pause their campaigns and head to Miami next week to support Trump, where he will appear in court.
Additionally, 2024 GOP candidate Nikki Haley said that endlessly attacking Trump should not be the way justice in the U.S. should be reached.
"The American people are exhausted by the prosecutorial overreach, double standards, and vendetta politics.It’s time to move beyond the endless drama and distractions," she tweeted.
However, several GOP members who were once thought to be close allies of Trump either remained silent or chose to throw him under the bus.
Fellow 2024 candidate and former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark) urged Trump to drop out of the presidential race. Despite saying that Trump is "entitled to the presumption of innocence," Hutchinson— who has been open about his dissatisfaction with the president — claimed the charges are a "major distraction."
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) also seemed to take sides on the matter, suggesting Trump can't blame anyone for his indictment but himself.
"Mr. Trump brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so," Romney said in a statement.
The senator-- who once said Biden was "genuinely a good man"-- took the opportunity to continue his attack against Trump, saying the former president failed to "defend the Capitol from violent attack and insurrection.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence chose not to release a comment on his ex-boss' situation.
On Friday, the indictment against Trump was unsealed showing more than 35 criminal counts, including conspiracy and retention of documents, making him the first former president in U.S. history to face federal charges. After the news broke, Trump took to his Truth Social account to accuse the DOJ of engaging in political "warfare."
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Special Counsel Gaslights, Completely Ignores DOJ Malfeasance and Double Standards in Statement on Trump Indictment
By Jennifer Van Laar | RedState.com
Jack Smith, the Special Counsel in the Trump documents case, gave a statement Friday afternoon regarding the indictment but did not take questions from reporters.
Smith’s statement completely ignored that Trump is being prosecuted by a Department of Justice controlled by his main rival in the upcoming presidential election and was filled with gaslighting about “one set of laws” in our country that apply to everyone. After announcing that Trump had been indicted by a grand jury in southern Florida, Smith said:
The men and women of the United States intelligence community and our armed forces dedicate their lives to protecting our nation and its people. Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced. Violations of those laws put our country at risk.
Everything he said there is correct, but those laws are selectively enforced. Nobody can argue that Hillary Clinton storing classified national defense information on a private server at her home did not put our country at risk, and nobody with any credibility denies that she did just that. And was there national defense information included in the classified documents Joe Biden was concealing in the garage of a home where an unregistered foreign agent (his son Hunter) was residing? What about the allegations that Hunter’s actions – a breach of protocol at a minimum – caused national defense information to be exposed, leading to the death of HUMINT assets in China? Any investigation there?
With a straight face, Smith continued:
Adherence to the rule of law is a bedrock principle of the Department of Justice, and our nation’s commitment to the rule of law sets an example to the world. We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone. Applying those laws, collecting facts, that’s what determines the outcome of an investigation. Nothing more, and nothing less.
Pardon me? The Department of Justice has engaged in more than two years of politically-motivated prosecutions and is ignoring the rule of law in pursuing them. That same Department of Justice chose – chose – to not prosecute Hillary Clinton even though the FBI had developed evidence that she violated the Espionage Act, by claiming that since they couldn’t find direct evidence that hostile governments had accessed the information (while admitting that they would likely be unable to detect said evidence), that no harm was done, so she didn’t need to be prosecuted.
Does the FBI believe that any hostile governments accessed these documents Trump had at Mar-a-Lago? Given that they were physical documents and not on an insecure server, I’m fairly certain they do not, which is another way in which this indictment shows there are absolutely at least two sets of laws in this country.
(Of course, Clinton is attempting to dunk on Trump today over his indictment. Totally on-brand for her to brag about benefitting from corruption.)
But Smith wasn’t done.
The prosecutors in my office are among the most talented and experienced in the Department of Justice. They have investigated this case hewing to the highest ethical standards, and they will continue to do so as this case proceeds.
Just today House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan released a letter detailing ways in which the investigation was not “hewing to the highest ethical standards,” so that contention is simply laughable. Also, as Miranda Devine pointed out, “disturbing claims by the lawyer for Trump valet Walt Nauta deserve serious scrutiny.” That claim is that that attorney’s (Stanley Woodward) application to be a judge was brought up by prosecutors in the Trump/Nauta matter when those prosecutors were attempting to persuade him to get his client to “cooperate in the investigation against Trump.”
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Miranda Devine @mirandadevine
Jack Smith just made a point of defending the integrity of his prosecutors, but disturbing claims by the lawyer for Trump valet Walt Nauta deserve serious scrutiny. He says that his own pending application to be a judge was brought up by Bratt and two of his team when they were…
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To be fair, that probably is an example of the highest ethical standards employed by this Department of Justice. But it shouldn’t be.
Questions like the ones I’ve asked above, or the questions asked on the pages of RedState about this politically motivated prosecution and grotesque abuse of power, won’t be asked in the mainstream media. Reporting on the double standards, the Department of Justice stomping on the rule of law, and attempts to coerce “cooperation” from Trump’s allies won’t be found there either. Still, we are committed to calling out the lies, corruption, and double standards, and not allowing the narrative to go unchallenged. We’re also committed to bringing you all of the information – including primary source documents such as indictments and court opinions – so you can read them in their entirety, with full context, and make up your own mind about what they mean (unlike “traditional” outlets, whose journalists think they need to interpret things for you).
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Jim Jordan Reveals New Information About Mar-a-Lago Raid in Scathing Letter to Biden DOJ
By Spencer Brown | Townhall.com
AP Photo/Terry Renna
In a new letter sent on Friday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) again called out U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and demanded answers and information regarding the Federal Government's raid and subsequent indictment of former President Donald Trump for his handling of classified documents after leaving office.
Citing the DOJ's actions against Trump — while ignoring the mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden — that have created the "serious appearance of a double standard and a miscarriage of justice," Chairman Jordan lays out the situation as it stands now:
The Biden Department of Justice is reportedly about to indict a former president and President Biden’s chief rival in the upcoming presidential election. According to reports, the Department will indict President Donald Trump, despite declining to indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her mishandling of classified information and failing to indict President Biden for his mishandling of classified information. The indictment creates, at the minimum, a serious appearance of a double standard and a miscarriage of justice—an impression that is only strengthened by allegations that a Biden Justice Department lawyer “inappropriately sought to pressure” a Trump-affiliated lawyer with the prospect of a judgeship. Additional information recently obtained by the Committee about the Department’s execution of a search warrant on President Trump’s residence only reinforces our grave concerns that your reported actions are nothing more than a politically motivated prosecution.
Jordan's letter also reveals new information from a transcribed interview the House Judiciary Committee conducted with the former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office Steven D'Antuono, someone who raised several concerns about the DOJ and FBI's handling of the case against the 45th president:
On June 7, 2023—days before the reported indictment of former President Trump—the Committee conducted a transcribed interview of Steven D’Antuono. Mr. D’Antuono served as the former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office (WFO) and one of the most senior FBI officials in charge of effectuating the unprecedented raid of President Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago. During his testimony, Mr. D’Antuono expressed strong concerns with the Department’s pursuit of the raid and noted several unusual features in the Department’s handling of the case. Mr. D’Antuono, who had over two decades of FBI experience, noted his frustration that the FBI was going to be “left holding the bag again” with respect to the search of President Trump’s residence.
D'Antuono's concerns, according to Jordan's letter, included the fact that the FBI's "Miami Field Office did not conduct the search," the Justice Department "did not assign a U.S. Attorney’s Office to the matter," the "FBI did not first seek consent to effectuate the search," and that the "FBI refused to wait for President Trump’s attorney to be present before executing the search."
Chairman Jordan had previously requested information from Attorney General Garland related to the search of Mar-a-Lago for Judiciary oversight "which the Department has refused to provide," according to Jordan, so Friday's letter reiterated and expanded the previous request in light of Trump's looming indictment.
The Judiciary Committee, with a deadline of June 16, requested:
1. All documents and communications referring or relating to meetings between FBI and Justice Department officials prior to the execution of the search warrant on President Trump’s private residence;
2. All documents and communications referring or relating to the execution of a search warrant on President Trump’s private residence, including those sent or received by the following FBI and Justice Department Officials:
a. Paul Abbate,
b. Matthew Olsen,
c. Jay Bratt,
d. George Toscas,
e. Steven D’Antuono; and
3. All documents and communications between or among Washington Field Office agents and employees and the U.S. Secret Service about a potential search of President Trump’s residence.
As Chairman Jordan pointed out, the appearance of a two-tiered system of politicized justice in the United States continues to become more clear: there's one system for Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and their pals while another system is used against Donald Trump, other Republicans, and conservatives seeking to exercise their God-given freedoms.
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Turley Reveals How Dem Efforts to Take Down Trump May Come Back to Bite Biden
By Nick Arama | RedState.com
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
We have a little more opinion from George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley.
We reported what he said before the Trump indictment. After he read the indictment, he said he found it “extremely damning,” although he also cautioned that a little, noting this is the prosecutor’s case and “every indictment falls apart to some degree” when you ultimately see all the evidence. But he also noted that the case wasn’t likely to go to trial before the election, and so the American people’s vote would to be a referendum on Trump. Turley explained that Trump could potentially pardon himself, if need be.
The effort to take down Trump started even before he was elected—with the Russia collusion hoax— followed by the impeachments, and now the indictments. If that wasn’t enough, Turley raised another possibility of how all the efforts to get Trump could come back and bite Biden, setting up possibly the wildest election ever.
Turley spoke about the “big debate” about whether or not you can impeach someone “for conduct before they became president.” He noted that because Biden is now denying the allegations while he occupies the office, you might be able to do some “bootstrapping” — meaning going after him for the remarks/actions while in office, trying to cover up the prior actions.
But beyond that, Turley noted that the Democrats just created a precedent that you can go after a former President, by going after Trump after he was out of office by the time of the Senate impeachment trial. Turley said that precedent could be used potentially to impeach Biden for his actions when he was vice president. “So, this is just going to get very, very weird,” Turley said.
Watters laughed and said that you could then have a federal trial against Trump, while an impeachment trial of Biden was going on at the same time, “in an election year.”
“Unbelievable,” Watters said. Turley noted it might be good for the legal commentators but pretty crazy for everyone else.
Not to mention that we still have the question of Biden’s classified document scandal. While they’ve rushed to indict Trump, they haven’t even bothered to interview Joe Biden yet. He took documents allegedly going back to 1974, that if he acquired them while he was in the Senate, he could only have gotten them by illegally removing from a SCIF. That raises not only criminal prosecution questions but present impeachment questions, as well.
Democrats have shown they have no regard for equal application of the law, and have turned our system into a banana republic, in the words of Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).
Trump was impeached for asking about Biden’s corruption, yet Biden was not prosecuted or impeached for that alleged corruption. Hillary Clinton gets a complete pass for classified documents, a private server, and allegedly destroying the evidence. As long as the Democrats are in power, the rule of law will be perverted. Part of the problem has been that they have never been held to account, not for anything, going back to Obama.
That’s why it’s been a slippery slope to the disaster we have now, and people are tired of it. If Republicans don’t understand that, they need to understand it now. This must change, and the only way that truly happens is for Republicans to win in 2024. Biden has to be held accountable—because right now, people have no faith in our system anymore.
