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Donald Trump on Saturday at a campaign event in the US state of Georgia

Photo: MEGAN VARNER / REUTERS

One day after the announcement of the indictment in the affair of US secret documents, ex-US President Donald Trump has publicly attacked the investigating Department of Justice. The lawsuit is a politically motivated campaign to prevent him from returning to the White House, he said on Saturday at an event of his Republican Party in the state of Georgia.

President Joe Biden's administration is using the Justice Department "as a weapon" and the allegations are "ridiculous and unfounded." Trump did not provide any evidence. It was his first public appearance since the 37 charges against him were made public on Friday.

Trump is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday

According to the report, Trump is said to have illegally retained, among other things, confidential and top-secret documents on the U.S. nuclear program and possible U.S. vulnerabilities in the event of an attack when he moved out of the White House in early 2021.

Trump is also accused of obstruction of justice. According to his own earlier statements, Trump is scheduled to appear in court in Florida on Tuesday – one day before his 77th birthday. The Ministry of Justice reaffirmed that it would make all decisions on investigations impartially. President Biden has stressed that he will play no role in the investigation against Trump.

Immediately after the publication, Trump sharply attacked the special investigator Jack Smith, who was appointed by the Department of Justice, on his platform Truth Social. At the appearance in Georgia, he said that the indictment against him would go down in U.S. history as "one of the most horrific forms of abuse of power." This vicious persecution is a mockery of justice." The only good thing about it, he said, is that the process will boost his approval ratings within the Republican Party.

This was indeed the case when Trump had already been indicted in March in connection with a hush money payment to actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. Trump pleaded not guilty in this case.

According to the Department of Justice, around 13,000 documents were seized in the document affair in August during a raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. About 100 of them are said to have been classified, some of them top secret. A U.S. law requires a president's correspondence to be archived for posterity.

ktz/Reuters