Republican officials are rallying around former President Trump in the moments after he claimed that he has been indicted by the Justice Department (DOJ) in the classified documents probe.
Trump said he has been summoned to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday. Special counsel Jack Smith has been overseeing the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents following his departure from the White House.
“This is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America,” he wrote. “We are a Country in serious and rapid Decline, but together we will Make America Great Again!”
Republicans have instantly echoed Trump’s sentiment, already accusing the Biden administration of corruption and calling it a sad day for the country.
“It’s a sad day for America. God bless President Trump,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote on Twitter.
“It’s a dark day in America when the President of the United States is arresting his political rivals. God Bless President Trump,” Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Tex.) also tweeted.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) accused President Biden of using DOJ for political purposes.
“Joe Biden has used his Justice Department to go after parents as ‘domestic terrorists,’ to spy on Catholic parishes, to terrorize & harass prolife Christians — and tonight to indict his top political opponent, Trump,” Hawley said in a post on Twitter. “He has trampled the rule of law to benefit himself. He has led the country into profound danger.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called the indictment “unconscionable,” also passing the blame to the president.
“Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America. It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him,” McCarthy wrote. “Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades.”
“I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice,” he continued. “House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”
Some Republicans have linked the FBI’s reluctance to deliver an unredacted confidential source letter to Congress to the timing of the news of the potential Trump indictment. The FBI, however, has allowed members to view the confidential document with limited redactions after weekslong negotiations with committee chairs.
House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) also claimed that Biden “weaponizes” the DOJ for the indictment and claimed this was a “witch hunt” and was an attempt “to interfere with the 2024 election in order to prop up” Biden’s campaign.
“The exact same day that the FBI is forced to turn over to Congress absolutely damning and credible allegations regarding Joe Biden’s illegal, egregious, and treasonous corruption, Joe Biden weaponizes his Department of Justice to indict Donald Trump,” she wrote in a statement. “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.”
“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,” she added.
Stefanik said she was committed to ending the “corrupt political weaponizing” of the federal government and vowed to “cut out the rot in these agencies” and to hold government officials “accountable for their endless illegal watch hunt” against Trump.
“In 2024, we will vote like this country has never seen before and we will elect President Trump back to the White House to save America,” she said.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote on Twitter that “DOJ indicts former President / candidate Trump SAME DAY DOJ/FBI restricts access to unnecessarily redacted Biden allegations And they wonder why ppl think there r two standards for justice.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz similarly put the blame on Biden and his family, calling the reported indictment “phony.”
“The phony Boxes Hoax indictment is an attempt to distract the American public from the millions of dollars in bribes that the Biden Crime Family received from foreign nationals,” Gaetz tweeted. “This scheme won’t succeed. President Donald Trump will be back in the White House and Joe Biden will be Hunter’s cellmate.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a longtime ally of the former president, posted a lengthy statement to Twitter, accusing Democrats of being afraid of losing to Trump. In her post, she claimed that the FBI and DOJ were treating Biden differently from the way they treat Trump.
She also included details of the confidential source document she saw in the SCIF today.
“It’s shameful. Pathetic really. Ultimately the biggest hypocrisy in modern day history,” Greene wrote. “A complete and total failure to the American people.”
“A stain on our nation that the FBI and DOJ are so corrupt and they don’t even hide it anymore,” she added.