'This is a hoax,' Donald Trump reacts to getting indicted in the classified doc case

After getting indicted in the classified documents case, former US President Donald Trump released a four-minute video and reacted to the charges against him. The twice impeached 45th President of the United States took to TruthSocial to give his side of the story. In the video, Trump called the whole ordeal a “hoax” and unleashed a fresh set of attacks against the Democratic party. On Thursday, the business mogul turned politician was indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate. This makes him the first US President in American history to face criminal charges by the federal government he once oversaw. 

In the video posted on Thursday (Local time), Trump stated that he is “innocent” and went on to claim that the opposition is going after a “popular president”. “Very sadly, we’re a nation that decline. And yet they go after a popular president, a president that got more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country by far,” the former US President proclaimed. He then went on to call the case a “hoax”. “They go after me on a boxes hoax, just like the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax and all of the others. This has been going on for seven years. They can’t stop because it’s election interference at the highest level,” he added. 

He also mentioned how the Muller report turned out to be “inconclusive” and blamed former First Lady Hillary Clinton and Democrats for setting it all up. “I’m an innocent man. I’m an innocent person. They had the Muller hoax, the Mueller report, and that came out with no collusion after two and a half years. that was set up by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, but this is what they do. This is what they do so well, if they would devote their energies to honesty and integrity it would be a lot better for our country,” the former US President asserted. The Muller investigation culminated in the infamous Muller Report which concluded that Trump’s campaign for the 2016 US Presidential election welcomed Russian interference. However, the court found insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy to charge the former US President and the members of his campaign. 

What is the case all about? 

In spring 2021, officials from the National Archives and Records Administration reached out to Trump’s representatives when they concluded that important documents from his time in the office were missing. One of the former US president’s representatives later revealed that some of the presidential records had been found at Mar-a-Lago. In May and August 2022, roughly 300 documents with classified markings were found in Trump’s residence, some of them were even marked as “Top secret”. 

According to the Presidential Records Act, White House documents are considered property of the U.S. government. Hence, no US official is allowed to keep these documents in their possession after they leave their respective office. In the Thursday judgement, the former US president has been charged with seven counts related to the mishandling of classified documents. Trump’s lawyer James Trusty said Thursday on CNN that the indictment includes charges of willful retention of national defence information, obstruction of justice, false statements and conspiracy, etc. 

What comes next?

While all the seven counts are yet to be made public, Trump said he had been summoned to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon in Miami. However, it is still not clear, whether the former US President will make an appearance in the court. In his video post, the US president exclaimed that the Democrats are going after him because he is leading the polls. “They come after me because now we’re leading in the polls again, by a lot against Biden and against the Republicans by a lot. But we’re leading against Biden by a lot, a tremendous amount,” the US President asserted. And that’s what it is. This is warfare for the law. And we can’t let it happen. We can’t let it happen,” he said. The former US President made it clear that he will fight this out. “I’m innocent and we will prove that very, very soundly and hopefully very quickly. Thank you very much,” he concluded.