House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) speaks to the press after meeting President Joe Biden to discuss the debt limit at the White House in Washington, on May 22, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other top House Republicans have criticized the Biden administration, after former President Donald Trump announced that he had been charged over his handling of classified documents.
“Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America,” McCarthy wrote on Twitter on June 8, shortly after Trump announced that he had been indicted by special counsel Jack Smith.
“It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades,” McCarthy added. “I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”
FBI agents raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in August 2022, seizing over 11,000 documents and photographs without classified markings and around 100 documents marked classified or top secret. However, Trump has said he declassified the materials when he left office.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointedSmith as special counsel overseeing the Department of Justice’s probes related to Trump in November.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during a 'Save America' rally in support of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) ahead of the midterm elections at Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition in Miami on Nov. 6, 2022. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump announced on Thursday that he has been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami at 3 p.m. on June 13.
The Trump campaign said in a statement that the former president “violated no laws and is being held to a different legal standard than other former Presidents and Vice President.”
“Today’s act of open legal ‘warfare’ by the highly politicized and partisan Department of Injustice, has taken things to a new level, and set a dangerous precedent. By politically weaponizing the DOJ, the Biden administration and their henchmen in the Swamp are now conducting an all-out prosecution of the leader of the current administration’s political opposition,” the Trump campaign said. “This is un-American and wrong.”
“President Trump will fight this unconstitutional abuse of power until he is ultimately vindicated.”
‘Sham Indictment’
Other Republican House leaders have also sided with Trump in criticizing Biden.
“Let’s be clear about what’s happening: Joe Biden is weaponizing his Department of Justice against his own political rival,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) wrote on Twitter.
Scalise added, “This sham indictment is the continuation of the endless political persecution of Donald Trump.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) attends a press briefing following a House Republican conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on June 29, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) pointed to the close timing between the indictment against Trump and the FBI’s decision to turn over documents in connection to an allegation that Biden accepted a bride as vice president.
“The American people are smart and understand this is the epitome of the illegal and unprecedented weaponization of the federal government against Joe Biden’s leading opponent, President Donald J. Trump,” Stefanik said in a statement. “The radical Far Left will stop at nothing to interfere with the 2024 election in order to prop up the catastrophic presidency and desperate campaign of Joe Biden.”
The New York lawmaker added, “I am committed to ending the corrupt political weaponization of our federal government, cutting out the rot in these agencies, and holding government officials accountable for their endless illegal witch hunt against President Trump.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called it a “sad day for America. God Bless President Trump.”
“Tonight is the next step in the Democrats’ coordinated effort targeting Donald J. Trump. They’re trying to derail his frontrunner campaign for the presidency, despite the fact that Joe Biden, himself, had classified documents strewn across the Mid-Atlantic region!” said House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) via Twitter.
Frank Fang is a Taiwan-based journalist. He covers U.S., China, and Taiwan news. He holds a master's degree in materials science from Tsinghua University in Taiwan.
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