OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Donald Trump railed at special prosecutor Jack Smith after the former president appeared in a Miami federal courtroom on Tuesday to answer a 37-count indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
In comments at his Bedminster, N.J., golf course later in the evening, Trump described Smith and the “Department of Injustice” as “thugs” who are trying to destroy his family.
“By the way, I will tell you, I’m here, and I love you all, and we can take it. But what these thugs, what these thugs have done to my family, is a disgrace. I’ll tell you that,” he said at one point.
“And I say it to all of the fake news because there’s a lot of it back there,” Trump continued, pointing at reporters at the back of the crowd. “What they did to my family. And that young man right there, he’s answered more subpoenas than any human being in the history of the world,” he added, apparently referencing his son, Eric Trump.
“And you know what? They have nothing. After all of those subpoenas, literally thousands. Congress, fake counsels, the Mueller report, all of this. All he did is answer subpoenas all the time. At least he’s become very experienced at that. Congratulations. But Eric is fantastic. And what he and Don and Ivanka and the whole group, that’s what they’ve gone through,” the former president continued.
“Take a look at this guy. He looks like a thug,” he said of Smith. “He feels much safer in the inner sanctums of the Department of Injustice, where he can be in his room and scream at people. He’s a raging and uncontrolled Trump hater, as is his wife, who also happened to be the producer of that Michelle Obama puff piece,” he added.
WATCH:
Smith has charged Trump with 37 counts related to his handling of classified documents. If he is found guilty on all counts, Trump — who is President Joe Biden’s chief rival in next year’s presidential election — could face decades in prison.
Trump pleaded “not guilty” through his attorneys in federal court on Tuesday. The federal judge granted Trump a pretrial release with no special conditions, with the exception of no contact with witnesses.
According to the indictment, Trump allegedly showed classified documents to a number of people who did not have the proper security clearances on at least two separate occasions. The DOJ alleges that both instances took place at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
Details regarding one of the alleged instances were leaked to CNN.
The network reported on June 2 that federal prosecutors had “obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.”
Trump announced last Thursday that he had been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges connected to his handling of classified materials.
The charges “include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, a scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations,” ABC News reported.
One of Trump’s attorneys ripped Joe Biden’s Justice Department during a Monday interview and said that her client was “100 percent” allowed to possess the classified materials he’s been indicted for having.
Christina Bobb told Newsmax that Trump’s authorization comes from the Presidential Records Act while going on to blast the way he’s been treated by the DOJ and FBI.
“Donald Trump was 100% authorized to keep everything he kept. And it was actually the Department of Justice that actually had to return materials because they took things they were not allowed to possess and had to return them,” Bobb noted.
