Hours after becoming the first former U.S. president to be charged with a federal crime Tuesday, Donald Trump laid out his defense against the 37-count indictment accusing him of mishandling sensitive government information and obstructing the investigation into his conduct—but his speech included legally fraught arguments and misleading comparisons of his political adversaries’ own legal woes:
President Joe Biden had him arrested on “fake and fabricated charges”: There’s no evidence Biden, who oversees the Justice Department, played any role in Trump’s case—the president has denied involvement, and Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith to handle the case in order to avoid any perception of political interference.
The Espionage Act doesn’t apply: Trump said the statute is reserved for “traitors and spies,” and while it’s true that espionage refers to spying, the provision Trump was charged under prohibits willful retention of national defense information and has been used to prosecute about a dozen others accused of holding on to classified information over the past five years, the New York Times reported.
The Presidential Records Act gave Trump “sole discretion” to “segregate personal materials”: The National Records and Archives Administration, which takes possession of government documents after elected officials leave office, has disputed this claim, explaining that the law, not the president, defines which documents...
A US judge has dismissed veteran singer Smokey Robinson's defamation claim against four former housekeepers who have accused him of sexual assault. The women sued the Motown star, 86, last year fo...