By Spy Uganda Correspondent
Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail Saturday, accompanied by indicted aide Walt Nauta, as the former president cast his own federal indictment as “election interference” and told Georgia Republicans it represented an abuse of power by the Biden administration.
“This is a political hit job. Republicans are treated far different at the Justice Department than Democrats,” said Trump, who offered no evidence for his claims at a state GOP convention in Columbus.
Trump, who is seen as the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, faces a total of 37 counts, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information. Nauta, the Trump “body man” or personal aide, who is regularly at the former president’s side, faces six counts, including several charges related to obstruction and concealment.
In a roughly 80-minute speech in Georgia, Trump denied any wrongdoing and described the probe as “a sad day for the country.”
“Our people are angry,” he said of his second indictment in less than three months, with investigations into election interference efforts in Georgia and his actions surrounding January 6, 2021, in Washington threatening to pose further legal troubles.
Trump told the Georgia audience that any other Republican at the top of the party’s 2024 ticket would face similar scrutiny and legal challenges.
“Somebody else? They’re not going to withstand that fire,” he said.
The former president expanded on that message during remarks at the North Carolina GOP convention in Greensboro later Saturday.
“I stand before you today as the only candidate who has what it takes to smash this corrupt system and to truly drain the swamp,” Trump said, “and I’m the only one that they don’t want to do it.”
Multiple Battles
Saturday’s speeches in Georgia and North Carolina demonstrated how Trump is responding – with fiery political attacks on Biden’s Justice Department in front of friendly audiences – as he mounts battles on both the political and legal fronts.
“The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration’s weaponized department of injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” the former president said.
Trump’s remarks were reminiscent of his first rally after last summer’s FBI search of his Mar-A-Lago estate. Speaking to supporters in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in September, Trump accused Biden of weaponizing federal law enforcement in what he said was “one of the most shocking abuses of power by any administration in American history.”
