Trump Goes After Special Counsel’s Wife in First Post-Indictment Appearance

Donald Trump gave his first public speech on Saturday following the new indictment against him by a federal grand jury on Thursday. Appearing at the Georgia GOP convention in Columbus, he called the indictment — where he is charged with 37 felony counts over allegations related to the classified documents he stored at Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House —“ridiculous and baseless” as he went after Special Counsel Jack Smith, his wife and documentary filmmaker Katy Chevigny, the Biden administration, and others during his speech.

Referring to Smith as “deranged,” the former president tried to paint Smith and the probe as a partisan effort. “Ultimately, these are cowards, they’re cowards. And he’s a big Trump hater openly. He’s a Trump hater,” Trump added, lobbing a bit of his vitriol also at Chevigny. “And his wife is even more of a Trump hater. I wish her a lotta luck but he’s he’s a bad Trump hater and she’s a Trump hater.”

Chevigny was a producer on 2020’s Becoming, a film about former First Lady Michelle Obama, and Federal Election Commission records show that she donated $2,000 in support of Biden’s presidential run that same year. 

However, the case Smith has culled since being appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November, is built on damning evidence provided by employees at Mar-a-Lago, close advisers to Trump, and Evan Corcoran, one of Trump’s own attorneys who a judge compelled to testify to the grand jury. Smith, who is also tasked to oversee the DOJ’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has also overseen other investigations into members from both parties.

On Friday, after unsealing the charges, Smith delivered a brief statement, where he emphasized Trump should be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. “Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced,” Smith said on Friday. “Violations of those laws put our country at risk. Adherence to the rule of law is a bedrock principle of the Department of Justice, and our nation’s commitment to the rule of law sets an example to the world. We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone.”

Of course, Trump had plenty of blame to go around beyond special counsel and his wife. “The ridiculous and 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 claimed during his speech on Saturday, adding, “This vicious persecution is a travesty of justice.”

He called Biden a “corrupt president,” vowing to evict him in 2024. “Because in the end, they’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you — and I’m just standing in their way,” he said.

Like his previous campaign trail speeches, Trump promised should he be reelected that he’d end the war between Russia and Ukraine, gain “total independence from China,” and cut federal funding for schools “pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.”

Earlier on Saturday, Mike Pence, Trump’s former VP and new challenger for the GOP presidential nomination, said he was “deeply troubled” by the indictment of his former boss. “It’s important to remember in America you are innocent until proven guilty,” Pence said at the North Carolina GOP Convention in Greensboro. “The former president, like every other American, is entitled to a presumption of innocence.”

The new federal indictment represents the second time Trump has been indicted; earlier this year he was criminally indicted on state charges in New York related to the former president’s hush-money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump is scheduled for arraignment in Miami on Tuesday over the federal charges. He has denied any wrongdoing.