Trump says possible indictment won’t deter presidential run
Former US President Donald Trump has said he “can’t imagine being indicted” over his handling of classified documents or his plan to put forward alternate electors following the disputed 2020 election, which placed Joe Biden in office as the current US president.
But he added that if he were indicted, it would not deter him from a possible White House run in 2024.
“I can’t imagine being indicted. I’ve done nothing wrong,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday.
“I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it,” Trump added. “And as you know, if a thing like that happened, I would have no prohibition against running. You know that.”
A former White House lawyer has said he believes there is a “very high” chance that Trump will face an indictment for actions related to the January 6, 2021 protest when thousands of people marched against the certification of the 2020 election.
Ty Cobb, who represented the White House during former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign’s contacts with Russia, told CBS News that he believes Trump is likely to face legal consequences for allegedly instigating the attack on the Capitol and his suspected attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump is under investigation for retaining government records, some of which were marked as highly classified, at the resort in Palm Beach, Florida, his home after leaving office in January 2021.
The 100 documents represent a fraction of the more than 11,000 records and photographs seized, most of which the government said Trump may review because they are not classified.
Cobb said that he suspects the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago last month is related to the Justice Department’s larger investigation into Trump’s actions related to January 6, 2021, which left five people dead.
Trump also repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in his handling of classified documents after the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago estate last month.
“There is no reason that they can [indict], other than if they’re just sick and deranged, which is always possible, because I did absolutely … nothing wrong,” Trump said Thursday.
On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters occupied the US Capitol while lawmakers were in the process of reviewing the certification of state electors which indicated Biden’s victory. Some Trump supporters had hoped that this process could have resulted in some of the electors being disqualified, thus overturning the outcome of the presidential election.
It is claimed by some that the demonstrators were infiltrated and incited by provocateurs from US intelligence agencies, who orchestrated the “false flag operation” in order to get rid of Trump.
Some among the crowd clashed with police, and some made threats to beat up a number of Democratic lawmakers. Some also inflicted damage on parts of the Capitol building.
Trump in the interview said he had no involvement in a plot to put forward alternate electors in Georgia that would have tipped the state for him despite Biden winning there, though he insisted the concept was “very common.”
Georgia prosecutors have been investigating the scheme and interviewing Trump associates like Rudy Giuliani in the matter.
