Donald Trump says he’s ‘being indicted for you’

Former President Donald Trump referred to the state and federal criminal charges against him as a “badge of courage” during a speech at conservative Christian event.

Trump addressed the crowd at roughly 8 p.m. local time on Saturday and was one of several high-profile Republicans to speak at the Faith and Freedom Coalition: Road to Majority Conference in Washington D.C. The former president, who is campaigning for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, headlined the “pro-faith” and “pro-family” conference’s Saturday festivities where he touted the two indictments he has received in two separate criminal investigations.

Trump made United States history in April after he became the first president to be charged with a crime. In that first indictment, Trump was accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s probe into an alleged hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

On June 8, Trump was handed his second criminal indictment when a federal grand jury indicted him on 37 charges, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information. The federal indictment alleges that the former president kept classified documents at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, and that he allegedly tried to prevent federal officials from getting the documents back.

Trump, who continues to maintain his innocence in both the state and federal criminal cases, pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Trump has repeatedly referred to the probes as “witch hunts” and “election interference.”

Newsweek reached out via email to Trump representatives for comment.

While speaking on Saturday evening, Trump said that he considers the state and federal criminal charges against him a “badge of courage.”

“Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxist, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of courage,” said Trump, garnering cheers from the conference crowd at the Washington Hilton.

“I’m being indicted for you,” he continued. “And I believe the ‘you’ is more than 200 million people that love our country.”

The crowd began chants of “USA” after Trump boasted that he’s “probably the only person in history who was indicted, and my numbers went up.”

The former president reiterated his frequent defense that he had “every right” to keep the classified documents, arguing the law is on his side.

“Whatever documents a president decides to take with him, he has the absolute right to take them,” Trump said in a clip of his speech that was shared on Twitter. “He has the absolute right to keep them, or he can give them back.”

Trump complained that “these scoundrels and thugs” only came after him and not the “many, many” other presidents who took documents after leaving office.

During the speech, Trump also lashed out at Democratic President Joe Biden and urged his supporters to help evict the “crooked” president from the White House and “take back” the country.

“Joe Biden has weaponized law enforcement to interfere in our elections, the greatest abuse of power that I’ve seen, that most of you have seen in the history of our country,” Trump said. “It’s a hoax.”

Trump’s trial on the charges related to his alleged hush-money payment is scheduled to begin on March 25, 2024. His trial date for the federal charges regarding his alleged mishandling of classified documents is to be determined. A judge announced it would begin on August 14, however, Special Counsel Jack Smith recently requested the trial be delayed until December 11.