Donald Trump indictment: McCarthy decries charges as ‘attempt to distract’ from Hunter Biden
Cami Mondeaux
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) denounced federal charges levied against former President Donald Trump by a grand jury, vowing to use his slim majority in the lower chamber to continue investigating the Biden administration and its “two-tiered system of justice.”
McCarthy responded to the slew of charges shortly after they were unsealed Tuesday evening, decrying the move as an effort from the Biden administration to distract from the legal troubles stemming from the president’s son, Hunter Biden. The top House Republican criticized the timing of the indictment, which came just one day after Congress heard testimony from a longtime business associate of Hunter Biden, whom lawmakers have been investigating over the last several months over allegations of international influence peddling schemes.
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“Just yesterday a new poll showed President Trump is without a doubt Biden’s leading political opponent,” McCarthy said in a statement, making him the highest-ranking Republican leader to react to the news of Trump’s indictment so far. “Everyone in America could see what was going to come next: DOJ’s attempt to distract from the news and attack the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, President Trump.”
Devon Archer, a business partner of Hunter Biden, appeared for a transcribed interview behind closed doors on Monday to answer lawmakers’ questions about the alleged involvement of President Joe Biden in his son’s foreign business dealings. The testimony revealed that Biden had been present for at least 20 phone calls with Hunter Biden’s business associates, although Archer noted the conversation did not pertain to official business.
However, Republicans pointed to Archer’s testimony as evidence that Hunter Biden had received money from China and that Joe Biden lied about knowing details of his son’s dealings, with several GOP leaders openly questioning the timing of special counsel Jack Smith’s legal charges against Trump.
“President Trump had every right under the First Amendment to correctly raise concerns about election integrity in 2020,” said House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY). “Despite the DOJ’s illegal attempt to interfere in the 2024 election on behalf of Joe Biden, President Trump continues to skyrocket in the polls and will defeat Joe Biden and be sworn in as President of the United States in January 2025.”
Trump was indicted by a grand jury on four separate federal charges: one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, one count of obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and one count of conspiracy against rights. The indictment listed four unnamed co-conspirators who were allegedly involved with Trump’s schemes, including four attorneys, one Justice Department official, and one political consultant.
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Trump has long maintained innocence in all investigations related to the Jan. 6 riot, accusing the Biden administration of unfairly targeting him because of his front-runner status in the GOP presidential primary. The former president released a statement shortly before his indictment was unsealed, denouncing the charges as “prosecutorial misconduct.
“Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago? Why did they wait so long?” he wrote in a Truth Social post. “Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign.”