Former President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Fox News that aired Monday evening, the first time he’s been specifically pressed on the allegations levied in the federal indictment against him.
Asked why he didn’t hand over documents to the government after he was subpoenaed, Trump replied, per NBC’s Jake Traylor: “I want to go through the boxes and get all my personal things out. I don’t want to hand that over to NARA yet. And I was very busy.”
He denied showing classified material to people during a meeting with a book publisher (the indictment claims Trump showed the meeting attendees a “plan of attack” that audio shows Trump called “secret” and “highly confidential”), telling Fox’s Bret Baier “I didn’t have a document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles.”
And he was broadly pressed about his past comments about the importance of protecting classified information, as well as how so many of his former administration officials are now critical of him.
The almost line-by-line interrogation concerning the allegations against him are a stark reminder of the legal woes Trump faces in this case — a federal judge Monday just ordered Trump not to share evidence from the discovery process with anyone, keep it, or post it on social media.
And the classified documents case might not even be Trump’s only federal liability — the Washington Post just published a deep dive into the origins of the Justice Department’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attacks as well as the attempts to overturn the election (the key finding was that the Justice Department and the FBI were slow to investigate Trump and his allies because of “A wariness about appearing partisan, institutional caution” and the high bar needed to justify investigating a former president).
In other campaign news:
The Golden State: Both President Joe Biden and Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis traveled to California Monday to fundraise for their 2024 presidential campaigns.
The anniversary of Roe: NBC News’ Monica Alba and Mike Memoli report that the White House is readying a series of events and appearances to mark the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade. And Senate Democrats plan to mark the anniversary with new legislationon access to contraception and birth control, as well as protections for doctors and for those traveling across state lines to receive an abortion.
Oh man, Oman: The New York Times reports on Trump backing a plan to sell villas in Oman, a plan “underscoring how his business and his politics intersect as he runs for president again amid intensifying legal and ethical troubles.”
Opportunity in Opportunity Zones: NBC News’ Ali Vitali reports that South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott is out with a new ad that focuses on his “opportunity zones” legislation and playing up how former President Trump signed it during his administration.
A little help from his friends: The Messenger reports that Nuestro PAC, a pro-Biden group aimed at helping the president with Latino voters, is re-launching and plans to spend $37 million to help Biden.
The call is coming from inside the House (Republicans): House Republicans want to ban the Defense Department from releasing summaries of military service records to the public after an investigation found records of GOP politicians were improperly released during the 2022 campaign, per NBC News’ Courtney Kube.
Judgment time: Three progressive prosecutors are also facing challenges in Tuesday’s Democratic primaries in Virginia, and the contests are “part of a flood of district attorney elections over the next two years,” writes NBC News’ Scott Bland.
