Donald Trump received his target letter from Special Counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago case way back on May 19. The very next day, Trump went on a very specific Truth Social rant spree.
“TRUMP Hating Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, whose family and friends are Big Time Haters also, will be working overtime on this treasonous quest,” he said, referring to Democrats supposedly stepping up their “fake investigations.”
“I did NOTHING WRONG!” he hollered in another. “When are they going to start talking about Biden’s documents, and the documents of almost all other modern day Presidents?”
He also berated the Justice Department for “viciously investigating me about ‘the Boxes Hoax,’ even though Biden is guilty and I am not — I did nothing wrong!”
The former President’s preoccupation on that spring Saturday has come into clearer focus now, as an indictment unsealed Friday details 37 separate counts related to Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified documents and attempts to cover them up after he left office. The date of the target letter was revealed by Smith in court filings.
At its crux, the indictment lists documents that were part of Trump’s stash, allegedly including information about U.S. nuclear weapons, military plans and foreign support of terrorist attacks that ran counter to U.S. interests.
It also paints a vivid picture of Trump’s usual blend of buffoonery and maliciousness as he allegedly dispatched his valet — also indicted — to shlep boxes of documents in and out of rooms, mused over the benefits of not revealing the existence of the documents and, per the indictment, theatrically reminisced before his lawyers about how Hillary Clinton’s attorney took the fall for her.
In his usual exclamation point and caps lock-heavy style, Trump denounced the indictment Friday as a “WITCH HUNT,” insisting that the boxes were full of innocuous newspapers and photos rather than classified material.
Smith, in a Friday afternoon press conference, promised a “speedy trial” and said he was eager to present his team’s case to a jury.
