The news that former President Donald Trump is facing indictment on several charges concerning his handling of classified documents is “something that reflects the most severe election interference on the part of the federal government that we’ve ever seen,” Rep. Matt Gaetz tells Newsmax.
“We’ve already uncovered this year that the CIA was actively involved in election interference in the last campaign trying to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story,” the Florida Republican told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.” “Here you have the Department of Justice, taking literally an indictment of a former president as a tool to resolve a dispute with the archivist.”
According to reports, Trump is being charged in a seven-count indictment accusing him of willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act and conspiracy to obstruct. The indictments are a result of an investigation underway through special counsel Jack Smith.
Gaetz pointed out, though, that while Trump is facing federal charges, “Joe Biden has had classified documents in his possession since 1974. We saw that this was a broken system almost everywhere we looked. Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Mike Pence…”
And, Gaetz added, “Then to use the power of criminal process to plow our country into the depths of the perceived third world is deeply, deeply troubling.”
Meanwhile, Biden is being accused of “taking a $5 million bribe with some pretty strong receipts” Gaetz said, referring to an FBI document concerning an informant’s claim that Biden, while vice president, was involved in a bribery scheme with a foreign national.
But “no one really believes” that Biden will face charges, he said. Trump, however, is being charged in a “records dispute rising to the level of criminal process,” said Gaetz.
“It’s not even the first time the left and the media have falsely accused President Trump of violating the Espionage Act,” said Gaetz. “You know, I remember [Rep.] Eric Swalwell being endlessly platformed on MSNBC and CNN to say that President Trump was a Russian agent. Now apparently, he’s violated the Espionage Act.”
Meanwhile, “There is probably not a presidential library in America where you couldn’t find some technical lack of compliance with some record policy,” the congressman said.
The Trump indictment, meanwhile, is about the 2024 election, Gaetz added.
“Does anyone watching really believe this would be happening to Trump if he wasn’t running again and if he wasn’t winning as the leading Republican candidate?”
Trump is to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, and Gaetz said he believes the former president will appear in the same courthouse where former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was prosecuted.
“It is such an abuse of federal power,” Gaetz said of the Trump charges. “We should immediately be holding congressional hearings on this to ascertain by what authority was this Jack Smith individual screened and reviewed for bias and to what extent were civil liberties potentially violated.”
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