Donald Trump tells crowds: ‘They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you’
Donald Trump has doubled down on claims he is the victim of a “witch hunt” – and says he is being framed for “treason”.
Speaking on Saturday in Georgia and North Carolina, he called it “one of the most horrific abuses of power in our country”, a “vicious persecution” and a “travesty of justice” by Joe Biden’s administration.
It was his first public appearance since he was charged with 37 felony counts in connection with hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
“They’ve launched one witch hunt after another to try and stop our movement, to thwart the will of the American people,” Mr Trump said – later adding: “In the end, they’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you.”
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What has Trump been charged with?
The former US president falsely insisted he won the 2020 election, saying: “We have fake elections, we have no borders, we have inflation.”
And he repeated an assertion that he had done nothing wrong – arguing he had been covered by the Presidential Records Act.
“This whole fake indictment, they don’t even once mention the Presidential Records Act … because they want to use something called the Espionage Act,” he said.
About 100 supporters, some waving “Witch Hunt” signs, showed up to an airfield in Georgia to greet Trump as he arrived.
Jan Plemmons, 66, wearing an oversize foam “Make America Great Again” hat, called the federal charges “absolutely ridiculous” and said she was ready to campaign with Mr Trump.
Another supporter, 67-year-old Michael Sellers, said it was “criminal what they’re doing” to him.
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Republican counteroffensive
While the indictment on charges of mishandling classified documents is set to play out in a federal court in Florida, about a thousand miles away, part of Mr Trump’s defence is well underway in a different venue – the halls of Congress.
Republicans have been preparing for months to wage an aggressive counteroffensive against the Justice Department.
The Republican campaign to discredit federal prosecutors skims over the substance of those charges, which were brought by a grand jury in Florida.
GOP lawmakers are instead working, as they have for several years, to foster a broader argument that law enforcement – and the Biden administration – are conspiring against the former president and possible Republican nominee for president in 2024.
Speaking to Politico, Mr Trump vowed to remain in the race even if he is convicted, declaring: “I’ll never leave.”
Pic: Department of Justice
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He is accused of wilfully defying Justice Department demands to return classified documents, enlisting aides in his efforts to hide the records and even telling his lawyers that he wanted to defy a subpoena for the materials stored at his residence.
The classified documents allegedly include files about the US nuclear programme and vulnerabilities to an attack that he knew he shouldn’t have kept after leaving office.
And prosecutors highlighted two instances where he allegedly shared classified information with people who were not authorised to see it.
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Pic: Department of Justice
The 49-page indictment also includes claims that he stored documents in a shower and ballroom at his resort, among other places.
The most serious charges carry potential prison sentences of up to 20 years each, but first-time offenders rarely get anywhere near the maximum sentence and the decision would ultimately be up to the judge.
Dozens of supporters were outside court as the man accused of fatally shooting the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare made his first appearance.
Luigi Mangione has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of murder following the 4 December killing of Brian Thompson, 50, outside a midtown Manhattan hotel.
The 26-year-old is accused of ambushing and shooting the executive as he walked to an investor conference.
Luigi Mangione supporters stand outside the Supreme Court. Pic: AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah
Dozens of people who showed up in court to support the suspect including former army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning who was jailed for stealing classified diplomatic cables.
Dozens more queued in the hallway.
Mangione is also facing federal charges that could carry the possibility of the death penalty.
The judge set a deadline of 9 April to submit pre-trial motions.
Luigi Mangione is accused of fatally shooting Brian Thompson. Pic: Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP
In addition to the New York cases, Mr Mangione also faces charges of forgery, carrying firearms without a licence, and other counts in Pennsylvania, where authorities arrested him at a McDonald’s.
Police say he was in possession of a gun, bullets, multiple fake IDs and a handwritten document that expressed “ill will” towards corporate America.
He is being held in a Brooklyn jail alongside several other high-profile defendants, including music mogul and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, and disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried.
The killing prompted some to voice their resentment at US health insurers, with Mangione attracting a cult following.
A poll taken in the wake of the shooting showed most Americans believe health insurance profits and coverage denials were partly to blame for the incident.
Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have not “done anything” to end the Ukraine war, US President Donald Trump has said.
He called the French president a “friend of mine” and the UK leader a “nice guy” but said Russia had only agreed to negotiate “because of me”.
Mr Trump made the comments days before both leaders visit the White House for a meeting in which they must try to press Ukraine‘s case while keeping the US leader onside.
Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron in Paris: Pic: Number 10/Flickr
The president also continued his criticism of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he had “no cards” to play.
“I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards. And you get sick of it. You just get sick of it. And I’ve had it,” he told a Fox radio show.
The comments come after he recently called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator without elections” – apparently in response to Mr Zelenskyy saying his US counterpart was living in a “disinformation space” after Mr Trump claimed Ukraine had started the war.
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Ukraine was also excluded from talks between the top US and Russian diplomats in Riyadh earlier this week.
They were intended to set the stage for future negotiations on ending the war, which started when Russia launched a full-scale invasion three years ago.
Speaking on Friday evening, Mr Trump denied speculation he could visit Moscow for talks on 9 May – the day Russia celebrates its victory over the Nazis.
President Trump speaks in the Oval Office on Friday. Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump also told reporters the Russian and Ukrainian leaders needed to “work together” to end the war.
However, the US has already dealt a huge blow to Kyiv’s position in any future talks.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that a return to pre-war borders was “unrealistic” and ruled out NATO membership as way to guarantee Kyiv’s security.
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President Zelenskyy has insisted he will not accept any deal that his country is not involved in.
Ukraine’s leader held talks with US envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv on Thursday, describing it later as a “good discussion”.
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Mr Kellogg struck a markedly different tone to President Trump when he called Mr Zelenskyy the “courageous leader of a nation at war”.
However, there are concerns over how much influence Mr Kellogg has, with a Ukrainian source saying there was a sense he had been sidelined.
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