Former Trump official blasts DOJ for issuing ‘vindictive and petty’ new charges

by Nick Robertson - 07/28/23 7:06 PM ET

Former Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 28, 2019. (AP Photo/File/Jacquelyn Martin)

Former Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker criticized special counsel Jack Smith after he laid three additional charges against former President Trump in a superseding indictment this week, calling the move “vindictive and petty.”

“I think this last round of charges, to supersede this indictment, was to try to punish Donald Trump,” Whitaker said in a Fox News interview on Saturday.

Smith originally indicted Trump on 37 counts related to mishandling of classified information at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. The three additional counts relate to alleged attempts by Trump’s aides to delete security footage of the classified information being moved around the club.

“It seems to me a little vindictive and petty,” he added. “The reason why I would say that is because these charges do not add anything, other than a new defendant, to a potential sentence if President Trump does get convicted.”

Longtime Trump aide Walt Nauta was also charged in the original indictment alongside Mar-a-Lago club manager Carlos De Oliveira — who is a new addition to the case.

Smith is also leading a separate investigation into Trump’s actions around the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol and attempts by the former president and his team to overturn the 2020 election.

The special counsel met with Trump’s lawyers earlier Thursday to discuss the Jan. 6 probe. The DOJ delivered a target letter to Trump earlier this month, raising speculation that the former president could be indicted a third time soon.

Whitaker said Smith breaks news on his two Trump investigations whenever news about investigations into Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, reaches the front page.

While he did not go as far as to call it a conspiracy, Whitaker did suggest, without evidence, that the White House was pressuring Smith to advance his Trump cases.

“I would not allege a conspiracy, that is obviously a loaded term, but what I would suggest is that there is very much an attempt by the White House and the Department of Justice to try to move the Bidens off of the front page and keep Donald Trump on the front page,” he said.

Trump is also facing criminal charges in a New York state case alleging that he falsified business documents making hush money payments over an alleged past affair.