Trump indictment ‘an unprecedented abuse of power,’ NC congressional Republicans say
North Carolina’s Republican members of Congress say political motivation is a leading factor in the latest indictment of former President Donald Trump.
On Thursday night, Trump posted on his social media account, Truth Social, that his lawyers had been informed he had been indicted on the “boxes hoax.”
Last August, the FBI searched Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, which doubles as a resort, to search for classified documents Trump was accused of taking after leaving his presidency. They walked away with 13,000 government documents, with several hundreds being classified.
On Friday afternoon, Trump’s indictment became public showing that he faces 37 charges including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, false statement and representation. If found guilty on these charges, Trump could spend the rest of his life in federal prison.
Trump’s aide, Walt Nauta, also faces charges on allegations that he helped Trump both retain and hide the documents around Mar-a-Lago as both Trump’s attorneys and government officials tried to find the documents at the home.
The indictment details the lengths they went to prevent the documents from being discovered. It also describes a recorded conversation Trump had with a writer and a staffer in which he showed them a national security document and admitted that it is classified, saying he can’t declassify it since he’s no longer president.
The documents included information about U.S. nuclear capabilities and those of other countries. He stored these documents in a ballroom, bedroom and bathroom.
Trump’s attorney James Trusty told McClatchy on Friday morning he and his partner, John Rowley, had just resigned as Trump’s lawyers.
Trump plans to attend Saturday night the GOP state convention in Greensboro. GOP officials say despite the indictment, he still plans to speak at his sold-out dinner. He’s likely to use the moment to address the charges.
Budd and Tillis weigh in
Sen. Ted Budd, possibly the biggest Trump supporter in the North Carolina congressional delegation, tweeted that citizens are innocent until proven guilty.
“We must ensure that justice is administered without political bias, and the American people are rightly skeptical that the Biden administration is able to do that,” Budd wrote.
Budd has Trump to thank for his seat in the Senate. He served in the U.S House since winning his first election in 2016, but chose to run for a vacant seat in the Senate during the 2022 election. The GOP primary race was up in the air at the time Trump took the stage at the 2021 North Carolina GOP convention and gave a surprise endorsement of Budd.
That endorsement rocketed Budd passed his opponents, former Gov. Pat McCrory and former Rep. Mark Walker, and helped him win the primary. Budd has since returned the favor, endorsing Trump in 2024.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville, said he thinks the case needs to be watched closely.
“There’s legitimate concerns about political motivations,” Tillis told The Charlotte Observer on Friday. “For one thing, we need to move pretty quickly to get elected officials and the DOJ out of the decision loop. Both for the indictment that we saw this week and a potential indictment of the sitting president.”
Tillis spent Friday morning in Charlotte attending a groundbreaking for a new runway at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, part of over $3 billion in capital improvements at the site.
“We need to understand that the American people are asking questions — we need to let the legal process play out,” Tillis said. “And we need to hold anybody accountable that has a political motivation behind anything that we say.”
What House Republicans from NC say
Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican living in Southern Pines who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee, called the indictments an outrage and said that President Joe Biden’s administration was weaponizing the Department of Justice against his political enemies.
“What an unprecedented abuse of power, the likes of which this country has never seen,” Hudson said in a written statement. “The crime for which President Trump is accused is one that President Joe Biden freely admits he has also committed.”
Following the search at Mar-a-Lago, the public learned both Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence also had classified documents. Unlike in Trump’s case, the Justice Department was notified and both Pence and Biden cooperated in further inquiries. The Justice Department announced earlier this week it would not charge Pence, but has stayed quiet on Biden’s investigation.
“The Biden administration must be held accountable for these attacks on blind justice to put an end to the criminalization of being the Democrats’ political opponent,” Hudson said. “The American people are fed up and they are not going to stand for this blatant partisan attack on our justice system.”
Other Republicans weighing in:
▪ Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican from Charlotte who helped create a House subcommittee to look into the weaponization of government agencies, implied the indictment was a sham.
“No one believes that any bona fide security concern motivates the DOJ to indict the immediate past, elected President of the United States over document filing practices, certainly not ‘espionage,’” Bishop tweeted. “This is the bureaucracy’s demonstration that it has taken control from the people.”
▪ Rep. Patrick McHenry called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to provide an explanation for Trump’s indictment and said charging a former president or current candidate without providing details raises serious questions.
“A secretive indictment of this magnitude is not in the best interest of the American people,” McHenry tweeted.
▪ Rep. Greg Murphy, a Republican from Greenville, said there are two systems of justice at work in the United States and called the country a banana republic, a derogatory term for tyrannical counties in the tropics with unstable economies.
“In this country, one political party can act with absolute criminal abandon and there are no repercussions,” Murphy wrote on Twitter. “Today we have two presidents, one former and one present, who did the same exact thing. But one is being indicted for a crime, and the other one, “the Big Guy”, peddled influence with China with no consequences.”
House Republicans accused the Biden family of collecting $10 million from foreign companies during his presidency, but after releasing documents last month trying to prove their case, Politifact found that the documents failed to prove that Biden himself took any actions to benefit his family, knew about the payments or benefited from them. They also failed to prove that the Bidens broke any laws.
“Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America,” McCarthy wrote. “It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades. I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice.”
He vowed that House Republicans would hold the “brazen weaponization of power accountable.”
Democrats react
Two of North Carolina’s Democrats also weighed in after the indictment was released.
“Well that’s an absolutely brutal indictment,” tweeted Rep. Jeff Jackson, of Charlotte. Jackson is a former prosecutor.
Rep. Wiley Nickel, who lives in Cary, said in a written statement the indictment demonstrates Trump’s total disregard for national security.
“Former President Trump’s actions compromised the lives and safety of U.S. military personnel around the world,” Nickel said. “No one is above the law, and anyone who undermines U.S. national security must answer for their actions.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2023 at 1:29 PM.
