Donald Trump on Saturday denounced the US justice system, which he says is “corrupt” and has been turned into a “weapon”, in his first public appearances since the indictment against him by the federal judiciary – an unprecedented development for anyone former president of the USA –, the consequences of which in the intra-party process of his faction, the Republicans, for the nomination of its candidate in view of the presidential elections of 2024 remain uncertain for the time being.

The real estate mogul faces 37 charges because after he left the White House in 2021, he took thousands of documents with him, some of which were classified, when he should have turned them over to the National Archives, and because he refused to return them.

His prosecution, the second in two months, following the one brought against him by the state of New York in April for accounting fraud, means that the 2024 presidential election will likely be unlike any other, as the Department of Justice of the outgoing A Democratic president is being pursued by the favorite of the Republican intra-party process.

Mr. Trump, who keeps repeating that he is a victim of political manipulation, appeared yesterday at two Republican events, first in Georgia, then in North Carolina, lashing out against what he called an unfair attack on him by the judiciary.

“We’re dealing with raving lunatics,” the former president said in Greensboro, North Carolina.

“This non-existent accusation against me by the (…) Department of Justice of the Biden administration is among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” he said, repeating that justice has turned into a political “weapon”.

“That’s what they do, if I wasn’t [σ.σ. υποψήφιος για νέα προεδρική θητεία] there would be no witch hunts, no accusations,” he told his followers.

His two campaign appearances came just three days before he appeared in federal court in Miami. He is accused of endangering US national security by keeping in his possession classified documents, including military secrets and the country’s nuclear data, after he left the White House.

“Unbalanced”

The indictment, made public yesterday Friday, accuses him of 37 offences, including “unlawful withholding of information concerning national security”, “obstruction of justice” as well as “perjury”.

Donald Trump has already reacted to the impeachment inquiry in a series of posts on his Truth Social social networking site and in a video he uploaded to Twitter, calling the special prosecutor in charge of the investigation, Jack Smith, “unbalanced”. denouncing election meddling that he says was orchestrated by his opponent, President Joe Biden.

The latter stated that he “has not spoken” with the Minister of Justice of his government about the case.

“They’re attacking me because we’re ahead of Biden again in the polls, by a margin,” Donald Trump claimed, although there are no polls that give him a clear lead, at least at this stage.

The opposition camp has generally so far rallied around Mr Trump.

The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, although his relationship with the stormy tycoon is not exactly warm, has civilized the prosecution against the former president, speaking of a “black day” for the USA.

And Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis, his main challenger in the internal party nomination process, also denounced the “tooling” of the Justice Department and its use as a “weapon.”