Sen. Mitt Romney is “angry” that the indictment of former President Donald Trump would put the country through unnecessary “angst and turmoil.”
“I’m angry. The country is going to go through tumult as a result of one thing — President Trump didn’t turn over military documents when he was asked to do so,” Romney told MSNBC on Friday. “All he had to do was hand them in.”
Trump was indicted last week on 37 counts related to mishandling sensitive documents at his Florida Mar-a-Lago home and refusing to return them. He is also been charged with attempting to obstruct the investigation into the handling of those documents by lying to investigators and moving the files to hide them from the FBI.
The indictment says the documents Trump kept at his home — in a bathroom, on a ballroom stage and other locations — included information about the United States nuclear program and plans for a possible attack on a foreign country.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
“I’m sure his counsel told him to hand over the documents, particularly when the subpoena came. But for some reason, he decided not to. He held on to them. Why? That’s the question. Why is the country going to have to go through all this angst and tumult? Why didn’t he just turn the documents in?” Romney said.
Last week, Romney said Trump is “entitled to the presumption of innocence” but added, “Mr. Trump brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents but by refusing to return them.”
While avoiding mentioning the actual charges against Trump in the indictment, Sen. Mike Lee has defended Trump by criticizing the justice system and the Biden administration, alleging the case is politically motivated.
Lee has also seized on Trump’s indictment as a fundraising tool, sending out a trio of fundraising emails.
The first fundraising email, on June 9, the day the indictment against Trump was made public, likened the Biden administration to a corrupt dictatorship.
“Joe Biden’s actions to hypocritically and corruptly indict President Trump — his chief political opponent — are comparable to the dictatorial and tyrannical tactics we often see in countries like Venezuela, Bolivia or Nicaragua … not in the United States of America,” the email reads.
Lee’s campaign sent out fundraising emails with similar language on June 12 and 13.
When readers click a red button reading “Stand with Mike,” they’re taken to a fundraising page with a suggested donation of $50 per month to help Lee “fight in the Senate against corruption and failure of leadership.”
Reelected to a third term last November, Lee will not appear on the ballot again until 2028. Romney has filed reelection paperwork, but says he remains undecided on another term representing Utah.
Follow @@SchottHappens