Trump once said a president under felony indictment would grind the government to a halt and create a constitutional crisis

CNN
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Former President Donald Trump said in 2016 that a president under indictment would “cripple the operations of our government” and create an “unprecedented constitutional crisis” – years earlier than he himself was indicted on federal prices whereas operating for a second time period as president.

Trump made the feedback practically seven years in the past about Hillary Clinton throughout the 2016 presidential marketing campaign.

“We could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and ultimately a criminal trial,” Trump said during a November 5, 2016, campaign rally in Reno, Nevada, reviewed by CNN’s KFile. “It would grind government to a halt.”

Just days earlier, on October 28, then-FBI director James Comey publicly introduced that they had reopened the investigation into Clinton’s dealing with of categorized data associated to her use of a personal electronic mail server throughout her tenure as secretary of state.

Now, Trump finds himself under the precise state of affairs he repeatedly described after he was charged in early June with 37 federal counts associated to retention of categorized paperwork and conspiracy to impede justice.

A tentative trial date had been set for mid-August by the case’s decide, however it’s seemingly to be pushed again. The particular counsel’s workplace asked for a December trial. The flexibility of when the trial will start leaves uncertainty if the case will conclude earlier than the 2024 election.

But Trump, the present front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, is not going to be disqualified from the presidency even when convicted, and he told Politico in June that he received’t go away the presidential race if he’s convicted of the prices.

At one other rally on November 3, 2016, in Concord, North Carolina, Trump made related feedback.

“If she were to win, it would create an unprecedented Constitutional crisis that would cripple the operations of our government,” he said. “She is likely to be under investigation for many years, and also it will probably end up – in my opinion – in a criminal trial. I mean, you take a look. Who knows? But it certainly looks that way.”

“She has no right to be running, you know that,” Trump said. “No right.”

Trump added at a November 5, 2016, rally in Denver that as “the prime suspect in a far-reaching criminal investigation,” Clinton’s controversies would make it “virtually impossible for her to govern.”

The feedback aren’t the solely ones from Trump’s previous campaigns that would have aged poorly together with his authorized troubles. In one other remark, made when operating for reelection, Trump acknowledged solely the sitting president may reveal categorized data.

CNN beforehand reported in an exclusively obtained audio recording that Trump said as president he may have declassified a doc about plans to assault Iran that he was exhibiting aides after leaving workplace, however acknowledged he couldn’t achieve this now that he’s not president.

“And you know the newspapers and the press and the fake news they went and said he just gave away classified information,” Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania in September 2020 when discussing his conversations with creator Bob Woodward on nuclear weapons. “First of all, I’m allowed to do it, I’m the President so I’m allowed to. I’m the one – I’m the only one that’s allowed.”

In September, CNN’s KFile reported that Trump beforehand known as for prolonged jail sentences for individuals who mishandled categorized data.