Donald Trump’s conduct as an accused is textbook.
On the vast majority of occasions, those prosecuted proclaim their innocence (whether they really are or not). “The news is that a defendant has pleaded guilty”, phrase of Mateo Seguí, veteran lawyer and reference in the courts of Barcelona.
The former president of the United States and long-time leader among the Republican candidates for the 2024 elections perfectly responds to this pattern of behavior.
Even before appearing today Tuesday in a court in Miami (Florida) he has declared himself innocent of the 37 federal charges that are imputed to him for taking from the White House highly secret documents about the defense of the country or nuclear weapons, storing them in the their Mar-a-Lago mansion (in such safe places as a toilet, shower, or ballroom), and resist returning them, even with the suggestion of destroying them. This is explained in the indictment of prosecutor Jack Smith, who highlighted the danger to national and allied security.
But unlike this vast majority of those prosecuted, Trump has a unique tool. He has more giant megaphones in the public gallery and this creates fear of riots.
On Saturday, he starred in two rallies in Georgia and North Carolina in which he not only disparaged the case, his second impeachment in less than two months, but resorted to this rhetoric more directed at instincts than at reason. general alarm
In addition to describing the special prosecutor as crazy, maniac or prick, he argued that this is a “political coup” mounted by President Joe Biden to send to prison his rival at the polls (she will of course be the candidate) and he equated it to Stalinist Russia or Communist China. “This is the final battle,” he said. “They don’t come for you, they come against you”, he insisted.
After the attempt to perpetuate himself by force in power on January 6, 2021, his speeches provoke once again the extreme security measures. The area around the federal court in the city of South Florida will be cordoned off, with a police deployment in which several bodies collaborate, although there are no plans to separate the protesters at the moment.
“Our country must protest”, remarked the former president in a radio interview on Sunday. And on his social network he insists with a “see you in Miami”. His incitement has not gone unnoticed in far-right forums.
Always with the spotlight on the “Department of Justice of Biden” as the instigator of the case, without any evidence – what a piece of paper for the president, who has limited himself to answering with a “no comment” -, Kimberly Guilfoyle, fiancee of Donald jr., Trump’s eldest son, said on his Instagram that “revenge is coming.”
Legislator Andy Biggs spoke of “an eye for an eye” and that “we are entering a phase of war”.
Kari Lake, who has not yet conceded defeat for governor of Arizona in 2022, sent a message from the conservative Georgia convention to Secretary of Justice Merrick Garland; to Attorney Smith, and to fake news. “If you want to take Trump – he warned – you will have to come against me and 75 million Americans like me. And I will tell you that many of us have NRA cards (the National Rifle Association). Thus he emphasized that many followers of the former president have weapons. And he postulated: “It’s not a threat, it’s a public service announcement.”
