Former President Donald Trump remained indignant that President Joe Biden and the Department of Justice is targeting him during a speech Tuesday evening, after becoming the first ex-president facing criminal charges.
"Today we witnessed the most evil and heinous abusive power in the history of our country,” Trump said at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club Tuesday evening. "More importantly, it's a political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation.”
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“This day will go down in infamy and Joe Biden will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but perhaps even more importantly, the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits, and Marxists has tried to destroy American democracy," Trump added.
But he made it clear that he isn't afraid. "They will fail and we will win bigger and better than ever before," he said.
Trump and his personal aide Walt Nauta were indicted by special counsel Jack Smith over allegations of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and appeared at Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami, Florida Tuesday afternoon. It's an unprecedented moment in American history leaving an uncharted path forward for both the nation and the Republican Party ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Supporters of Trump were on hand at the courthouse Tuesday as were 2024 rival and venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy, a longshot candidate for the Republican nomination. Yet, Trump did not enter the courthouse in front of his allies but out of public view.
Trump faces 37 felony counts for willingly retaining and concealing national security documents, making false statements, conspiring to obstruct justice, and refusing the National Archives' requests to return the documents. He pleaded not guilty to all of the charges earlier on Tuesday. However, Trump is banned from speaking with potential witnesses about the case, including Nauta who faces six criminal counts related to the classified documents. Trump did not have to surrender his passport and faced no restrictions on travel.
Trump, undeterred, vowed to continue his presidential campaign irrespective of his legal woes. He remains the frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary.
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Republicans have come to Trump's defense slamming the Justice Department's "weaponization" of the agency against the former president and his allies. But there have been some notable officials who have pushed back. Former Attorney General Bill Barr pushed back against Trump's claims of villainization. “I was shocked by the degree of sensitivity of these documents and how many there were, frankly,” Barr told Fox News Sunday. “If even half of it is true, he’s toast.”
Tuesday's arraignment makes Trump a twice impeached and twice indicted former president who was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in a civic case last month. If a Miami jury convicts Trump he could face jail time.