(AP) — Donald Trump is characterizing the federal charges against him as “election interference and yet another attempt to rig and steal a presidential election.”
He aired his grievances Tuesday to hundreds of supporters at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, hours after becoming the first former president to face charges in federal court. He entered a plea of not guilty.
Previewing a possible legal defense, Trump said he had a right to go through boxes and separate personal records from government documents.
He also said he had not had a chance to review all the materials transferred from the White House before FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago residence last year.
Trump called the case against him “one of the most outrageous and vicious legal theories ever put forward in an American court of law” and compared his own actions to those of other former senior officials, though the facts in those cases are different.
He called special counsel Jack Smith a “thug” who does “political hit jobs” and said, “This day will go down in infamy.”
“The seal is broken by what they’ve done. They should never have done this,” Trump said of the indictment.
The arrival of Trump’s motorcade was met with cheers. Many people rushed to get pictures. Several hundred supporters and club members were packed onto a patio, many wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats.
Guests included former Justice Department official Kash Patel, former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik and MyPillow businessman and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.
Lindell said he was at the event “to support our real president, Donald Trump,” and “there was nothing done with any malicious intent at all.” He added that he considers the indictment “a blessing” because he thinks it will drive Trump’s poll numbers up.
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