James Trusty and Donald Trump.Photo:Today Show Twitter; Bob Berg/Getty Images
Today Show Twitter; Bob Berg/Getty Images
An attorney forDonald Trumpsaid the former president plans on taking on Thursday’sunprecedented federal criminal chargeshead-on.
“He’s a fighter and he’s going to come out swinging,” attorney James Trusty insisted ontheTodayshowFriday morning. “He’ll be fine.”
On Thursday, Trump was indicted in special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents probe.
The federal indictment contains at least seven counts, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and conspiring to obstruct justice, according toThe New York Times.
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Trump is set to be arraigned in federal court in Miami on Tuesday and will be there in person, Trusty said onToday, because theCelebrity Apprenticehost “isn’t afraid” of the “ridiculous criminalization of a non-criminal dispute.”
“He’s a resilient guy,” Trusty toldCraig Melvin, when asked on the NBC morning show how Trump responded to the charges. “He’s a pretty tough guy."
It’s unclear how Trump will pled though there’s a good bet it’ll be not guilty, with Trusty saying that his client is “factually innocent of these charges.”
The one-term president took to his social media site on Thursday to announce the indictment, lobbing accusations at the Biden administration.
James Trusty.William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images
William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images
As of Friday, the DOJ has not yet weighed in on the reported charges.
Outlets includingThe Independentreport that Trump’s former chief of staff,Mark Meadows, provided evidence to the grand jury and will plead guilty to federal charges as part of a limited-immunity deal in exchange for his testimony — though Meadows' lawyer denied to The Independent that his client had agreed to any guilty pleas.
News of the indictment comes after prosecutors investigating the case reportedly accessed a July 2021 recording of the former presidentacknowledging that he retained a classified Pentagon documentabout a potential attack on Iran.
Donald Trump.Brandon Bell/Getty
In early June 2023, CNN reported that the recording, which was made roughly six months after Trump left the White House, captures the former president suggesting he would like to share the information found in the classified documents but is aware that his ability to declassify records after leaving the White House is limited.
While it’s unclear what sort of evidence Meadows would have provided to the grand jury, it’s worth noting that he wrote about the existence of a “four-page report” that contained information about “a plan to attack Iran” in his own autobiography.
With that initial indictment, Trump became the first sitting or former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.
In May, Trump was also found liable forsexually abusing and defamingformerElleadvice columnistE. Jean Carrollfollowing a highly publicized civil trial in Manhattan.
The latest charges against Trump, which could provoke turmoil in the U.S. given his status as a 2024 presidential candidate, come 10 months after news of alleged mishandling of sensitive White House records first broke in 2022.
source: people.com
