Donald Trump indicted: Schiff claims former president had ‘malign intent’ to break the law
Asher Notheis
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Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) stated on Friday that the recent indictment of former President Donald Trump is proof that Trump had “maligned intent” to break the law by storing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Schiff, who was once the impeachment manager during the former president’s first impeachment trial, made his statement on the same day the 49-page indictment was unsealed, laying out 37 counts against Trump that alleged the former president was “personally” involved in the transport of the documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago home. The California lawmaker described the indictment as “stunning” in its detail during an interview with MSNBC.
DONALD TRUMP INDICTED: CHARGES UNSEALED IN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE AGAINST EX-PRESIDENT
“The most difficult element to prove often is, what did the defendant intend?” Schiff told MSNBC host Nicole Wallace in an interview Friday. “But here Donald Trump has made so crystal clear in the conversations that are recorded, in the instructions he gives to his aides to move the boxes, in his deceitfulness with his own attorneys. It’s just so graphic.”
Adam Schiff Trump indictment
Schiff went on to describe the decision to indict Trump as “a historic decision” but noted that the decision by the special council was not a difficult one.
“The evidence laid out in this indictment is so powerful that I don’t think special counsel had any choice but to go forward,” said Schiff.
The classified documents that Trump kept at his Mar-a-Lago residence were held in various places at the resort, including a ballroom and a bathroom and shower room. Schiff wrote on social media that when he was chairman of the Intelligence Committee, the committee members were “exceedingly careful” not to take classified information home with them.
“These photos are a compilation of places NOT to store classified material,” Schiff wrote.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchiff/status/1667249793121550337?s=20
Trump revealed Thursday evening that special counsel Jack Smith, who was hand-picked by Attorney General Merrick Garland, had informed him he was being indicted related to his alleged mishandling of classified records at Mar-a-Lago and that he had been summoned to appear in a Miami federal courthouse on Tuesday afternoon. The former president said he intends to plead “not guilty” to all charges.
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The indictment poses further trouble for Trump, who is trying to run for president again in the 2024 election and faces competition in a growing field of Republican candidates. Former national security adviser John Bolton has recommended that the former president shut down his presidential campaign amid the criminal charges against him.
Many Republicans have been critical of the indictment, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who wrote on Friday that the indictment was politically motivated. The Virginia governor claimed that there are two different tiers of justice in the country, and that the new indictment “undermines faith in our judicial system.”