Congratulations to those who were waiting for it, because Donald Trump has been formally hit with serious federal criminal charges related to his harboring of classified documents after leaving the presidency.
As could be expected, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) was among those to address the situation as Trump faces possibly extensive time in jail should he ever be convicted. “By all appearances, the Justice Department and special counsel have exercised due care, affording Mr. Trump the time and opportunity to avoid charges that would not generally have been afforded to others,” the Senator observed, getting to the specifics of the Trump case. Romney also laid the blame for this situation with Trump — not, of course, some ill-defined, nefarious third party perpetrating an imaginary conspiracy to stop Trump and his supporters, or something.
“Mr. Trump brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so,” the Utah Senator continued. “These allegations are serious and if proven, would be consistent with his other actions offensive to the national interest, such as withholding defensive weapons from Ukraine for political reasons and failing to defend the Capitol from violent attack and insurrection.” Romney voted in favor of convicting Trump of impeachment allegations after both those sets of circumstances. He was the only Republican Senator to back Trump’s conviction in both instances, though more from his party joined him the second time.
Trump, of course, is remaining consistent in his assertions that he’s just the victim of a witch hunt, as he calls it. An associate of the ex-president named Walt Nauta has also been criminally charged in this investigation. Nauta had been suspected of basically aiding Trump in his retention of the documents and apparent obstruction of government attempts to reclaim the materials and then carry out an investigation into what had been transpiring.
