ATLANTA — Former President Donald Trump will surrender to federal authorities in Miami on Tuesday on charges he mishandled classified documents and obstructed justice.
He made his first public appearance after that indictment over the weekend here in Georgia.
We are still at least two months away from knowing if Trump will be indicted by a Fulton County grand jury.
But he certainly went on the offensive during that appearance down in Columbus, criticizing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the new federal indictment against him.
The 37-count indictment charges him with mishandling classified documents and obstruction. He blamed the Biden administration during his speech at the Georgia GOP convention on Saturday.
“The ridiculous, baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration’s weaponized Department of Justice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” Trump said.
Criminal defense attorney Jessica Cino told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot that Trump may need to watch what he says about the case because federal prosecutors are listening, too.
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“Anything that Donald Trump says can be used against him in court. No matter when he said it, what context he said it in, it’s not protected,” Cino said.
Trump also criticized Willis’s two-year-long investigation into him for possible criminal interference with Georgia’s 2020 presidential election surrounding his now infamous phone with Georgia’s Secretary of State.
“Right here in Georgia, you have a lunatic, Marxist district attorney of Atlanta who they say is coming after me over a perfect phone call,” Trump said.
Cino warned that antagonizing a prosecutor investigating you for possible criminal charges probably isn’t a good idea.
“Generally, you would perhaps refrain from calling the person who has prosecutorial discretion over your case a lunatic. We would not advise that of any client,” Cino said.
Willis has indicated she could make a decision over whether to charge Trump and others in August.
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