Monday's nearly 100-page indictment of Donald Trump and 18 of his allies accuses the defendants of meddling in the 2020 election results in Georgia. But Trump's defenders contend that all Trump and company wanted to do was challenge what they believed was a fraudulent election result in Georgia.
AFN talked with Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption. Fitton says the prosecutors' objective is quite clear. "The goal is to interfere with the election, as the Biden regime is seeking to put him on trial literally as the primary season begins," he offers.
Fitton explains why he thinks the Democrats' strategy can work.
"There's no way on earth that two federal indictments and two indictments – [one] by allied political operatives in New York and [one by] Georgia Democratic Party politicians – are not going to have a negative impact on the campaign," he says. "Now it may not be enough to make him lose the primary, but certainly in a general election it could have an impact."
It is possible Trump's defense team can get early intervention from the Supreme Court. But Fitton suggests that's unlikely to happen.
"He can try to accelerate any appeals of adverse rulings that constrain his First Amendment rights or seemingly are terribly political – but to get the court above the lower courts to intervene, that could be a tough call," he adds. "We're in a terrible situation – [and] that's all I can say."
Taking the National Archives to federal court
Meanwhile, Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) records related to the Archives' role in President Trump's White House records controversy.
The FOIA seeks to discern whether the agency offered Trump a secure storage location other than the National Archives; and if the Archives consulted with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding the classification or declassification procedures of any of the alleged classified documents found at Trump's Florida residence one year ago.
According to Fitton, the federal indictment of Trump over those records is a "sham" indictment.
"It's based on his keeping records that he deemed or had been considered personal for other presidents – and of course, he's being dinged for having records he supposedly wasn't supposed to have," he tells AFN. "And we wanted to know about the … National Archives' interaction with Trump, where the Trump team suggested they dropped the ball as well."
The Judicial Watch leader explains that the "runaround" his organization has been getting from NARA eventually led to the FOIA lawsuit. "The Archives has been pushing Trump in a way we've never seen a former president be treated before, so we've asked for documents about those interactions," he concludes.
Fitton accuses the National Archives of covering up the full truth about its selective abusive targeting of President Trump – and that, he says, is in absolute violation of federal FOIA law.
