"They" want to arrest me, former President Donald Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social on Sunday.
"They want to interfere — to a point where Joe Biden is willing to arrest his opponent who is leading him in the polls by a very large number," Trump wrote, citing his 2024 bid for the president.
The post included a video of Trump saying the same thing at a Saturday speech before the Faith and Freedom Coalition meeting, which he concludes saying, "but we're not going to let that happen."
Trump was referring to the 37-count indictment against him for allegedly mishandling classified documents. Special counsel Jack Smith accused Trump of refusing to comply with National Archives' requests to return documents he took with him when he left the White House in January 2021.
Trump maintains the documents are his and that he, as president, had the ability to declassify them under the Presidential Records Act. Trump has made conflicting statements on whether he did so, but has at times said he made a blanket statement that all were declassified.
In the past Trump has made many claims of a "stolen election" during the 2020 cycle when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Though his claims of voter fraud have never been substantiated, there is evidence that the intel community tried to influence the outcome of the 2020 election.
According to the Thursday testimony of an IRS whistleblower, Gary Shapley, the FBI "verified" the contents of Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop in November 2019 — a full year before the 2020 election between Trump and President Joe Biden. Shapley added that a federal computer expert assessed the laptop "was not manipulated in any way."
In the month of October and in the days leading up to the 2020 election, 51 former members of the intelligence community signed off on a letter that the Hunter Biden laptop story carried "classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." In the days that followed, a media blackout ensued, as revealed by the "Twitter Files."
Not until April 2023 was it revealed in a letter to now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken, formerly of the Biden campaign, that the intelligence community engineered efforts to change the outcome of the election.
In the letter from Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, the congressman quoted testimony from former acting CIA Director Michael Morell, who said Blinken reached out to him on or around Oct. 17, 2020.
"[P]rior to [Secretary Blinken's] call, you — you did not have any intent to write this statement?" an interviewer asked.
"I did not," Morell responded.
"Okay. So his call triggered —"
"It did, yes," Morell replied.
"— that intent in you?"
"Yes. Absolutely."
Jordan's letter further stated that Morrell said he wanted to help Biden win the election.
"What was the intent of the statement?" an interview asked.
"There were two intents," Morell answered. "One intent was to share our concern with the American people that the Russians were playing on this issue; and, two, it was [to] help Vice President Biden."
"You wanted to help the vice president, why?" Jordan asked him.
"Because I wanted him to win the election," Morell said.
"You wanted him to win; that's why?" Jordan asked.
"Yes, sir," Morell replied.