Donald Trump’s indictment is not only an extension of the “biggest witch hunt of all time”, but mutants are involved too – that is according to the former president’s latest bizarre rant on Truth Social.
In a characteristically rambling post on the social meda site on Wednesday, Mr Trump said that the indictment “hoax” was the fault of misfits, marxists and communists – as well as “mutants”.
“REALLY BIG FUNDRAISING, EVEN GREATER POLLS, SINCE THE RADICAL LEFT INDICTMENT HOAX WAS INITIATED BY THE MISFITS, MUTANTS, MARXISTS, & COMMUNISTS! THANK YOU,” he typed in his now trademark all-caps style.
Mr Trump failed to explain what he meant by mutants – or why they were to blame.
The former president, who was impeached twice during his four years in office, was indicted on 37 counts over his alleged retenton of classified documents after leaving office, including information pertaining to national security.
The indictment, which was unsealed on Friday (9 June), alleges that Mr Trump deliberately lied to and misled authorities so that he could hold onto documents that he knew were classified.
On at least two separate occasions, Mr Trump then showed some of the classified documents to people not authorised to see them, the indictment alleges.
Stunning photos revealed that many of the documents were stored around a toilet, shower and ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The charges include 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information and single counts of false statements and representations, and counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document, concealing a document in a federal investigation and a scheme to conceal.
Mr Trump’s longtime aide Walt Nauta was also charged with six obstruction- and concealment-related charges after he allegedly helped move boxes of documents from Mar-a-Lago to Mr Trump’s residence and then lied to investigators about having any knowledge of the handling of the papers.
Mr Trump appeared for his arraignment in a Miami federal courthouse on Tuesday afternoon, where he became the first current or former US president ever charged with a federal crime.
He pleaded not guilty to all 37 federal charges and continues to claim he is the victim of political persecution. He faces a maximum penalty of 536 years in prison if found guilty on all counts. Mr Nauta did not enter a plea as he did not have legal counsel in Florida.
At a speech in Bedminster following the Tuesday arraignment, Mr Trump suggested he was a victim of election interference, once again repeating his lie that the 2020 election was in some way stolen from him.
“A corrupt sitting president had his top political opponent arrested on fake and fabricated charges, of which he and numerous other presidents would be guilty, right in the middle of a presidential election in which he is losing very badly.
“This is called election interference and yet another attempt to rig and steal a presidential election,” he said.
“More importantly, it’s a political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation.
“This day will go down in infamy and Joe Biden will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but perhaps even more importantly the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits, and Marxists tried to destroy American democracy.”
In the speech, Mr Trump also claimed that the boxes of classified documents discovered in his possession actually contained clothes.
“Many people have asked me why I had these boxes, why did you want them?” he said.
“The answer, in addition to having every right under the Presidential Records Act, is that these boxes were containing all types of personal belongings — many, many things, shirts and shoes, everything.”
He insisted he wanted to sort through the boxes but had been “busy”.
