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HOUSTON (NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump called the unsealing of documents in his election interference case by special counsel Jack Smith a “weaponization of the government” during an exclusive interview with NewsNation on Wednesday in Houston, Texas.
The Republican nominee was at a private fundraiser when he told NewsNation’s Ali Bradley that Smith is a “deranged person” following the dismissal of his separate classified documents case in July.
“This was a weaponization of the government … and released 30 days before the election,” Trump said of Wednesday’s developments. “My poll numbers have gone up instead of down. It is pure election interference.”
The interview came after prosecutors, in a court filing unsealed Wednesday, said Trump “resorted to crimes” after losing the 2020 election by disregarding the advice of his vice president and other aides.
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The filing was submitted by Smith’s team following a Supreme Court opinion that conferred broad immunity on former presidents for official acts they take in office, narrowing the scope of the prosecution charging Trump with conspiring to overturn the results of the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
“So what?” the filing quotes Trump as telling an aide after being alerted that his vice president, Mike Pence, was in potential danger after a crowd of violent supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Earlier on Truth Social, Trump alleged the documents were unsealed a day after the vice presidential debate so that the news coverage would not focus on “Tim Walz’s disastrous debate performance.”
The release of the documents “is another obvious attempt by the Harris-Biden regime to undermine and Weaponize American Democracy, and INTERFERE IN THE 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION,” he said on the social media platform.
The first and only vice presidential debate between Republican nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Democratic nominee Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was largely civil, with each vice presidential candidate sharing their thoughts on how their running mate may govern.
“The people know it, I know it, everybody knows it,” Trump told NewsNation in alleging Democrats are trying to rig the 2024 election.
The filing from Smith’s team offers the most comprehensive view to date of what prosecutors intend to prove if the case charging Trump with conspiring to overturn the election reaches trial.
Though a monthslong congressional investigation and the indictment itself have chronicled in stark detail Trump’s efforts to undo the election, the new filing cites previously unknown accounts offered by Trump’s closest aides to paint a portrait of an “increasingly desperate” president who while losing his grip on the White House “used deceit to target every stage of the electoral process.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.