Gov. Phil Murphy (D) blistered former President Donald Trump (R) related to his handling of classified documents: “It takes my breath away.”
“It takes your breath away, I say as a former U.S. ambassador. I don’t know who else has to sign this but I know everybody in the state department, you have to sign before you go to post, that you admit that you allowed classified documents to get outside of a classified space,” Murphy said at a media scrum after a ribbon cutting in Hoboken.
” … He’s got lots of legal issues, but this is apparently, based on the 37 charges, this is potentially putting our national security at risk. It takes my breath away … In addition to being a bad thing, it’s unfathomable that somebody would do it.”
On Friday, Trump was hit with his second indictment in about three months, the bulk of which accusing him of “willfully retaining national defense information under the Espionage Act.”
In the 49-page indictment, federal prosecutors assert that Trump showed off classified military documents to a handful of people who did not have security clearance to view them, as well as that he stores the documents in his bathroom.
“As president, I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” he allegedly said at his Bedminister golf course in July 2021.
He is also accused of saying “I don’t want anyone looking through my boxes” in May 2022 and then telling one of his lawyers the next month to “pluck it out” if he found “anything really bad” in a folder that had been sealed with duct tape.
Trump is scheduling to be arraigned in a Miami federal court tomorrow, though that court proceeding may be pushed since he has had trouble finding a lawyer to represent him. The hearing will be delayed if Trump does not have legal counsel.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump indicated that he has no plans to give up his bid for another term as president and went as far as to say he will go after President Joe Biden (D) and his family if he defeats him in November 2024.
“Now that the ‘seal’ is broken, in addition to closing the border & removing all of the ‘criminal’ elements that have illegally invaded our country, making America energy independent, & even dominant again, & immediately ending the war between Russia & Ukraine, I will appoint a real special ‘prosecutor’ to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the USA, Joe Biden, the entire Biden crime family, & all others involved with the destruction of our elections, borders, & country itself!”
Political allies and supporters have indicated that they plan to hold a rally at the courthouse tomorrow, with some indicting they’ll be heavily armed and “want blood,” as VICE reported.
News correspondent Daniel Ulloa contributed to this report.