Donald Trump is doing everything in his power to defend himself from charges he mishandled classified documents.
The whopping 37-count criminal indictment exploded last week and has scalded the president.
To put out the flames, Trump is making appearances with allies who run radio shows and podcasts to share his version of events with conservative voters. The former president visited his old crony Roger Stone’s radio program to plead his innocence.
Donald Trump – It’s the Bidens, Not Me
This time Donald Trump is saying that the indictments were an effort to distract the country from President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s corruption investigation by the House Oversight Committee. Lawmakers on this congressional panel believe they have found evidence that the Biden family has engaged in criminal enterprises.
They have unearthed an FBI document that reportedly shows large payments to the president, including Hunter, that may have been bribes from the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. This could have included payments as high as $5 million to each – but there is no current public evidence to ensure a claim.
The committee also believes it has information that shows these disbursements may have been deposited into a network of shell companies to hide their origin and then sent to several Biden family members through a web of bank accounts.
Distracting the Country from Alleged Biden Corruption
“It’s incredible when you look at what happened, when you look at the kind of money that flows into the Biden family, and to Joe Biden, by the way, and so they wanted to do a distraction,” Trump said to Stone.
The younger Biden has been investigated for tax improprieties and for allegedly lying on a federal gun purchase form. His indictment could come any day or not at all. Trump believes that Hunter will only get a slap on the wrist while the grand jury unfairly threw the book at the former president. Trump naturally thinks that there is a two-tiered justice system with different rules and laws for Democrats and Republicans.
“They’ll probably come up with a jaywalking charge on Hunter in the not too distant future, you know, a very small charge, so they can say well, ‘It’s fair.’ But there’s a very unfair situation. We’re living in a very, very corrupt country,” Trump told Stone. Trump also said his supporters should “protest” at his arraignment in Miami.
Consolidate Conservative Support
The media strategy for Trump is to go on conservative outlets to protest his innocence and castigate the Bidens. He is undoubtedly preaching to the choir, but it may be a bigger part of an effort to cement his standing in Republican circles to make sure he wins the GOP nomination for president.
This appears to be working.
Trump has received a positive polling bump after the indictment for the classified document mess. A CBS/YouGov poll found that 61 percent of likely Republican voters say that they are unaffected by the charges. Fourteen percent said they have even more positive feelings for Trump after the accusations became public. Eighty percent of the GOP voters said Trump should still be elected president despite his arrest for mishandling classified documents.
Trump Still Has a Big Lead Over DeSantis
Meanwhile, he remains at the top of the race for the nomination. CBS/YouGov found that Trump has the support of 61 percent of Republicans while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is in second place at 23 percent.
So, expect Trump to make the rounds of conservative media pleading his innocence and criticizing the justice system and the Bidens’ alleged corruption. It appears this will be a winning strategy leading up to his two criminal trials. One is for New York charges that he engaged in falsifying business records in a hush money scheme to silence a woman he had an extramarital affair with. That trial will be in March 2024 during the middle of the campaign season. Trump will be arraigned June 13 on the current charges regarding the mishandling of classified documents and the trial date has not been set yet.
Trump is not likely to drop out of the presidential race or engage in some plea deal. His strategy is to deny, press for exoneration, and make counter-accusations against the prosecutors, the Special Counsel Jack Smith, the Department of Justice, and Attorney General Merrick Garland. He will consider all these individuals as enemies of the state and corrupt to the core. Trump’s friends in MAGA-land will steadfastly agree.
Author Expertise and Experience
Serving as 19FortyFive’s Defense and National Security Editor, Dr. Brent M. Eastwood is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer. You can follow him on Twitter @BMEastwood. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Foreign Policy/ International Relations.
From 19FortyFive
Joe Biden Is Starting To Scare Everyone
