Guilty verdicts won’t stop me running for president, says Donald Trump
The Republican frontrunner in the US presidential race say he’ll still run if convicted in any of the criminal probes threatening to derail his comeback campaign.
Donald Trump has said he would still run for president if convicted in any of the criminal investigations that threaten to derail his comeback campaign.
The former president and frontrunner for the Republican nomination next year was speaking after prosecutors added three further charges over his handling of classified government documents. He is also waiting to hear whether he will face a second federal criminal indictment over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result.
When asked by the radio host John Fredericks whether being sentenced would stop his campaign, Trump responded: “Not at all. There’s nothing in the constitution to say that it could.”
It could become the subject of intense debate in the run-up to the election next year if Trump is charged with inciting an insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Section three of the Fourteenth Amendment bars from elected office previous office holders who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion”.
Trump, 77, was first indicted in June with 32 charges of wilfully retaining national defence information and five further charges, including obstructing and conspiracy, all of which he denied.
The three further felony charges revealed on Thursday include allegations that he asked an employee at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to delete security camera footage sought by investigators.
They bring the total number of charges against Trump in the classified documents case to 40. Prosecutors accuse Trump of trying to “alter, destroy, mutilate or conceal evidence” and of inducing another person to do so. They say he asked Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager at his resort, to delete footage in an effort to obstruct the federal investigation.
De Oliveira was added to the indictment as a second co-defendant, accused of joining Trump and his aide, Walt Nauta, in seeking to destroy the footage. Jack Smith, special counsel, charged De Oliveira with conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements and destroying documents.
Prosecutors also allege that Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira asked an unnamed staff member to “delete security camera footage to prevent [it] from being provided to a federal grand jury”.
Prosecutors expanded the list of charges of illegally retaining national defence information against Trump to include a conversation recorded at the his golf club in New Jersey, in which he appeared to reveal he had kept secret military plans for an attack on Iran.
The Times
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