Former President Donald Trump vowed that even a conviction and a prison sentence would not cause him to withdraw from the presidential election via Media Ite.
News broke Thursday afternoon that Special Counsel Jack Smith has filed three additional charges against Trump: one additional count of unlawful retention of National Defense Information and two new obstruction counts based on allegations that Trump and co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira attempted to delete surveillance video footage at The Mar-a-Lago Club in the summer of 2022.
On Friday morning’s edition of The John Fredericks Show, host John Fredericks asked a tired-sounding Trump about the charges, and whether a prison sentence would make Trump end his run for the presidency:
JOHN FREDERICKS: Well, this is I mean, this is what they want to destroy your life as well, and get you off the ballot. So let me ask you this. If going forward, right. You get these indictments, there ends up you got a jury in D.C., you get convicted and sentenced. Does that stop your campaign for president if you’re sentenced?
DONALD TRUMP: No, not at all. There’s nothing in the Constitution to say that it could, and not at all. And even the radical left crazies are saying, no, that wouldn’t stop. And it wouldn’t stop me either. These people are sick. What they’re doing is absolutely horrible.
The new filing:
- charges Trump with one additional count of unlawful retention of National Defense Information
- adds a defendant,Carlos De Oliveira, to the obstruction conspiracy that was charged in Count 32 of the original indictment.
- charges defendants Trump, De Oliveira, and Waltine Nauta with two new obstruction counts: Counts 40 and 41. These additions are based on allegations that the defendants attempted to delete surveillance video footage at The Mar-a-Lago Club in the summer of 2022.
- adds a new Count 42 charging De Oliveira with false statements and representations in a voluntary interview with the FBI on January 13, 2023.
