Former US President Donald Trump said the indictment against him was fake and made no reference to the Presidential Records Act, because they wanted to use the spy law against him.
"The absurd and baseless indictment against me will be among the most horrific abuse of power in the history of our country," Trump said at a Republican convention in Georgia, accusing what he called the "extreme left" of using the "corrupt" Justice Department, the FBI, the attorney general and prosecutors to interfere in the election.
"We were negotiating with the National Archives as any other president did, and then we were surprised by the raid on armed FBI agents in Mar-a-Lago," Trump said.
The former US president said the prosecutor tasked with investigating the documents, Jack Smith, was scared and trembling during the news conference "because he is a coward and he is a Trump hater and so is his wife."
"On November 5 next year, we will defeat Joe Biden and finish the work we started during the most successful presidency," he promised his supporters.
Crime and punishment
U.S. special prosecutor Jack Smith has said the prosecution team in the classified documents case hopes for a speedy trial of Trump.
Trump, who will make his Miami court debut on Tuesday, denies the charges in a federal case against a former president seeking the Republican nomination in the 17-month presidential election.
The new indictment details 37 criminal charges uncovered by US prosecutors, 31 counts of "intentional retention of national security documents," which violates a law on espionage that prohibits the keeping of state secrets in unauthorized and unsecured places.
The indictment included three counts of withholding or concealing documents in a federal investigation, two counts of false statements, and one count of "obstruction of justice."
Investigators seized 13,100 documents from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, including <> confidential documents.
If convicted, Trump faces a maximum prison sentence of up to 20 years.