Former President Donald Trump said the Department of Justice must “immediately” withdraw its indictment against him and replace it with an apology, citing the Presidential Records Act.
Trump made the statement on his Truth Social account, touting a column written by lawyer Michael Bekesha in the Wall Street Journal where he argued a president “chooses what records to return or keep and the National Archives can’t do anything about it.”
“The Presidential Records Act allows the president to decide what records to return and what records to keep at the end of his presidency. And the National Archives and Records Administration can’t do anything about it. I know because I’m the lawyer who lost the ‘Clinton sock drawer’ case,” Bekesha wrote in the Journal.
Trump on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to 37 charges related to alleged mishandling of classified documents.
He is the first former U.S. president to face federal charges.
Trump, 77, in a Friday morning Truth Social post also railed against former White House chief of staff John Kelly after Kelly said Trump is “scared s***less” over the charges.
“John Kelly pretended to be a ‘tough guy,’ but was actually weak and ineffective, born with a VERY small ‘brain.’ He had a hard time functioning in a political world, and was truly an exhausted and beaten man when I fired him,” said Trump.
“In the end he was a ‘mummy’ who sat in his office and stared at the ceiling — he was ‘shot.’ I’ll never forget how his very nice wife told me that ‘John loves you, and respects you more than anyone, he will always say the BEST things about you.’ Oh well, so much for that!”