The latest four-count indictment accuses the former president of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Many pundits say it will be virtually impossible for him to get a fair trial in D.C. The judge assigned to his case is a Barack Obama appointee with a reputation of harshly sentencing January 6th protesters and sympathizing with anti-police rioters. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has also ruled against Trump before.
Responding to the indictment on his radio program, Abraham Hamilton III, general counsel and public policy analyst for the American Family Association, noted the timing.
"We've got the Department of Justice's Jack Smith announcing an indictment for President Trump literally within the same week, a few days after the same Department of Justice tried to go into a Delaware courthouse and enter a plea bargain that gave Hunter immunity for all crimes, present and in the future, that may be committed," Hamilton said.
Calling it "interesting" that U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika denied that plea, he also noticed that with the use of a certain phrase, the DOJ made a startling admission multiple times in the indictment.
"You have the Department of Justice stating in an indictment that both the defendants spread lies that there had been 'outcome-determinative fraud' in the [2020] election," the attorney quoted. "How else am I supposed to interpret that phrasing other than as an admission that even the Department of Justice is acknowledging … there was some fraud? Is outcome-determinative not a qualification to the word fraud?"
lf that is the case, he rhetorically asked the Department of Justice if "anybody ever tried to find out just how widespread the fraud was."
Hamilton says he wants the proof.
The deep state's determination
The Washington Post reports that former President Trump's political action committee, Save America, spent more than $40 million in legal fees during the first half of the year defending Trump and his aides and allies from the Biden Justice Department's mounting charges against him.
That is more than any other expense the PAC has incurred during Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and, according to recent federal filings, more than Trump's campaign raised in the second quarter of 2023.
While that has prompted questions from prosecutors about potential conflicts of interest, the team contends that legally defending the former president and his inner circle is a necessary expense. So Trump's team is creating a legal defense fund to help offset the expenses. It will reportedly be called the Patriot Legal Defense Fund Inc.
Washington Times columnist Robert Knight says the deep state is determined to wreck Donald Trump any way it can, including with burdensome legal fees.
"I don't think there's anything unethical about it, because he can't pursue his campaign if he's fighting all these phony legal charges," he says about the legal defense fund. "But I think it damages him," Knight adds.
He believes people who are inclined to give to President Trump would prefer that their contributions go toward traditional campaign expenses and not to "a bunch of lawyers."
"In that respect, I think it hurts him to keep draining the campaign fund to pay legal fees," the columnist explains.
While Trump's legal defense funding is getting mixed reviews, Knight says the strategy of the other side is clear.
"What they're hoping to do is cripple Donald Trump and yet inspire Republicans to nominate him so they can try to take him out in the general election," he observes.
Knight adds that "no president has ever been persecuted like this."
Editor's Note: The American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates AFN.net.
