The three new charges stacked against Donald Trump have left members of the GOP enraged over the timing a day after Hunter Biden’s probation-only plea deal fell apart.
“It’s so brazen right now, what they’re doing,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told Fox News Thursday following the announcement of the charges against Trump in the ongoing classified documents probe.
“It is really a subversion of the rule of law. I mean, they’re taking the rule of law, turning it on its head, and we cannot allow this to stand.”
Hawley said the DOJ has begun “charging random people” after Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, was added to the indictment — hinting that the new charges were meant to take attention off the first son.
“Is it any coincidence that the DOJ rushes to add these new indictments today, after the Hunter debacle, after their own self-dealing and two-timing is exposed, after they tried to us the true extent of this plea deal,” Hawley proclaimed.
Hunter Biden, 53, and his team of lawyers were blindsided by Judge Maryellen Noreika on Wednesday when she refused to sign off on a plea deal that would land the first son on two years of probation for gun charges rather than face possible jail time.
“The American people are not gonna be safe,” Hawley conveyed to the outlet. “Our system of government is not gonna be safe if this is gonna be the new standard.”
The president’s son pleaded not guilty to federal tax and gun charges following the bombshell ruling by the judge, opening the door for the possibility of additional charges in the future — such as for allegedly working as an unregistered foreign agent.
Hunter Biden admitted during the hearing he had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Chinese Communist Party-backed company — contradicting President Biden’s claims his family never “made money from China.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) called the charges brought forth by the Democrats “a disgrace” during an interview with Newsmax on Thursday.
“I think Merrick Garland should be impeached and removed from office for allowing the Department of Justice to be turned into a partisan hammer to attack the political enemies of the White House,” Cruz said of the attorney general.
Prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by Garland, accused Trump of attempting to delete surveillance footage at his Palm Beach club — naming de Oliveira, 56, as a co-conspirator — according to the 60-page filing submitted on Thursday.
Fellow Republican lawmakers have also begun ringing the bell the indictment is being used as a distraction to benefit the Biden Family.
“The American people understand that Joe Biden and his administration are engulfed in one of the biggest political corruption scandals of all time,” wrote House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-Ny.) in a statement shared on Twitter.
“It is no coincidence that the day after a federal judge throws out Hunter Biden’s corrupt, sweetheart plea bargain, Biden’s weaponized [Department of Justice] continues its witch hunt against President Trump,” she added. “Our Republic is in peril, our justice system is broken.”
“The DOJ’s decision to pursue additional charges against President Trump is further evidence of the politicization of our nation’s top prosecutorial agency,” tweeted Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)
“Amid AG Garland’s dismissal of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden & Hillary Clinton, Tennesseans are tired of two tiers of justice.”
Trump weighed in on the new charges he faces — asking why Joe Biden had not received the same amount of pressure he has endured for storing “more” documents.
“Whatever happened to the Crooked Joe Biden Document’s case? He had 20 times more boxes than I did, and he wasn’t covered by the Presidential Records Act. I was,” Trump questioned via Truth Social Thursday.
“When it first came out that Biden had all of these Docs, many Classified, almost everyone, including those on the Left, said, ‘there goes the case against Trump.’ But they waited and waited, got failed prosecutor Deranged Jack Smith, and STRUCK – but did almost nothing on the REALLY BAD Biden Documents case, many stored in Chinatown,” he added.
Trump is now up against 40 charges after the latest filing.
“This is prosecutorial misconduct used at a level never seen before,’ Trump told Fox News on Thursday.
“If I weren’t leading Biden by a lot in numerous polls, and wasn’t going to be the Republican nominee, it wouldn’t be happening. It wouldn’t be happening.”
De Oliveria was named alongside Trump and his valet Walt Nauta — both initially indicted on June 8 — for allegedly moving approximately 30 boxes of classified documents into a storage room in Mar-a-Lago’s basement on June 2, 2022, to hinder federal investigators.
De Oliveria is also accused of transporting the boxes of classified documents to Trump’s Bedminster, NJ, estate as the FBI was combing the 77-year-olds at the Palm Beach mansion on June 3.
He’s charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice; altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object; corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, record, or other object, and making false statements to investigators.
If found guilty, De Oliveria could spend up to 65 years in prison.
