Newsman: Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night promised to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the Biden family only hours after his arraignment on 37 federal felony charges in Florida.
Trump’s vow prompted cheers and chants of “lock him up!” from the audience. The idea followed Trump’s own proclamation that he was facing “political persecution like something out of a fascist or communist nation.”
The day would “go down in infamy,” he said, adding that on Election Day 2024, “justice will be done.”
Trump also hinted at what his defense might look like, claiming that photos included in the indictment — which show boxes stored in a bathroom and on a stage — were “staged,” and saying some of the boxes held memorabilia, not documents. Trump’s lawyers reviewed his speech, a person familiar with the matter said.
The goal of today was to “lay down a marker of how he wants to frame the entire case,” said Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump.
Remarks came with allies and friends at his club, a fundraiser for this campaign.
Trump at a surprise stop at a famous Miami restaurant packed with supporters. And Trump’s speech had hallmarks of a MAGA rally, with declarations to “Save America” and go after political enemies, including President Joe Biden.
“What did the other candidates do today? We know where Trump was. He was going to Cafe Versailles, giving a speech here tonight, and there was no other oxygen for other candidates,” Cheung said.
The former president opened his remarks with familiar attacks on Biden and the Justice Department while maintaining that he did nothing wrong in stashing boxes containing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, after leaving the White House at the end of his term.
Tuesday’s charges were nothing more than “political prosecution,” he told the crowd of his die-hard fans and allies who traveled to Bedminster for the last-minute invitation to hear him speak.
