Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Donald Trump will plead not guilty to charges connected to his handling of classified national security records, the former president told Fox News on Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump told Fox News that he’s “totally innocent” and that the indictment is “election interference at the highest level.”<\/p>\n The former president, who is seeking reelection to the White House in next year’s election, announced Thursday that he had been indicted on charges connected to his handling of classified national security records. He wrote on social media that he had been summoned to federal court on Tuesday in Miami, where prosecutors are expected to charge Trump with seven criminal counts.<\/p>\n The indictment made public on Thursday apparently stems from an FBI raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence last August, when the federal government recovered<\/a> more than 300 documents with classified markings, including some materials labeled \u201ctop secret,\u201d seized months after Trump\u2019s lawyers turned over 15 initial boxes of documents.<\/p>\n The special counsel has been investigating Trump\u2019s handling of classified documents that were brought to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House in 2021.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s lawyer, in a separate interview with Fox News, said Trump\u2019s second indictment is nothing more than a \u201cpolitical weapon to sideline a candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNone of this is a surprise to the actual people at Archives, but they have turned it into a political weapon to sideline a candidate,\u201d Trump lawyer Jim Trusty said on \u201cFox and Friends\u201d Friday. \u201cThere’s a lot that’s wrong on the merits of these potential charges or what seems to be the indictment. But the flip side, even before you get to that, is the misconduct.”<\/p>\n