Trump has made headlines this week after an interview on Newsmax in which he accused ex-president Bill Clinton of sneaking classified documents out of the White House in his socks and warned that Hilary Clinton is in possession of “acid that will destroy everything within 10 miles.” Here’s the full story.
Trump Diverts to the Clintons
During a Wednesday segment on Greg Kelly Reports, presidential hopeful Trump was asked for details on his classified documents case – a case that’s currently ongoing and for which Trump has been indicted on four criminal charges.
In characteristic Trump manner, however, the former president took this opportunity to rail on the Clintons, starting with Hilary’s email scandal. “They released Hillary Clinton. She hammered her phones. She used all sorts of acid testing and everything else they call it, BleachBit, but it’s essentially acid that will destroy everything within 10 miles.”
Trump is referring to BleachBit software, which Hilary’s aides admitted they used to delete emails, and that cannot destroy anything within 10 miles other than computer files. During the email scandal, Clinton turned in over 30,000 work emails from a private server and claimed that the emails that had been deleted were not related to the investigation.
FBI Investigation on Clinton
After a long investigation, the FBI eventually determined that there was “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information,” and no charges were brought forward.
Trump used this story to great effect in the 2016 election, destroying Clinton in the race for the presidency. “I mean, what she did was unbelievable. Nothing happens to her,” Trump commented before attacking Bill. “Nothing happens to Bill Clinton. He took it out in his socks, you know? It was a famous socks case, which he actually ended up winning.”
This is a repeat claim by Trump that various news agencies have debunked. The classified documents Clinton allegedly hid were an interview between him and a historian, which he’d stored in his sock drawer.
While this is strange behavior, a court ruled that the tapes were not governmental property and were the historians, and no charges were leveled against Clinton.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Allegations
Trump, meanwhile, is accused of hiding classified documents containing highly classified national secrets in various locations around his Mar-a-Lago estate, which would be illegal under U.S federal law.
Trump faces 40 charges of mishandling documents and then conspiring with two employees to hide them from federal authorities, a case being brought against him by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. Over 300 classified documents were recovered from Mar-a-lago over a year after Trump had left the White House.
Trump has pleaded not guilty, and his legal team is currently trying to have the charges dismissed in court. However, early reports seem to indicate that the judge may not agree with this.
Trump’s team attests that he had the authority to take the records as his personal property due to the Presidential Records Act, but whether this defense will work or not is a matter of contention.
Dissecting Trump’s Defense
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s team argues that “Trump’s claims rest on three fundamental errors, all of which reflect his view that, as a former President, the Nation’s laws and principles of accountability that govern every other citizen do not apply to him.”
Elsewhere in the Newsmax interview, Greg Kelly asked Trump if his legal issues had made it “lonely for you? I mean, no one can fully relate to what you’ve been through and what you’re going through. Are you ever lonely?”
In response, Trump mentioned that Andrew Jackson “was treated the absolute worst,” with Abraham Lincoln coming in second, but said that he was the most slandered president in U.S history, stating, “Nobody’s been treated like Trump in terms of badly.”
“Russia Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine. Everything was a scam, and it literally started a new one. As you win one, you start the other impeachment hoax number one, impeachment hoax number two. All hoaxes and scams,” Trump said, adding later that he is working against “some very evil people.”
The post Trump Accuses Clintons of Classified Document Destruction in Newsmax Interview first appeared on Swift Feed.
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / lev radin.
The content of this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute or replace professional financial advice.