The additional charges filed this week against former President Donald Trump in Florida, as with the original charges, fall under the Presidential Records Case Law, which "has no criminal prohibitions in it" and is something that "should be worked out, not prosecuted," former Rep. Pete King said on Newsmax Saturday.
But, the New York Republican told Newsmax's "Wake Up America" that Trump was a "bit arrogant" over the documents being kept at his Mar-a-Lago estate and "is his own worst enemy on this."
"To me, it's absolutely wrong to have a full Justice Department investigation and prosecution of a case where there's no harm, no foul," as there is no indication that Trump wanted to use the documents for illegal purposes or to give or sell to a foreign enemy, King added.
"This may have been Donald Trump basically being a bit arrogant and not trusting the government, but to make this a criminal case is absolutely wrong and a terrible abuse of the criminal justice system," he said.
King agreed that the timing of the additional charges may be suspicious, considering they were announced just after a plea deal for Hunter Biden on his tax evasion charges was put on hold.
"Give the judge credit for blocking this, at least for now, and also letting the public take a look at what [was] planned here," said King. "It basically was going to be like a [go] around to get around other serious criminal charges by tying it in with a misdemeanor tax offense. I'm glad the judge blew that whole deal up. "
But still, when things are going badly against President Joe Biden, "they announce something new about Donald Trump," said King. "I think they're using the criminal justice system one, to get President Trump, and secondly, to protect Joe Biden."
Meanwhile, Trump is facing an indictment in connection with the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; and King said Saturday that while he thinks Trump's actions after the protests became violent were wrong, they weren't illegal.
"[He] should have spoken out clearly, denounced it; but I don't see that as being a crime," said King. "I think that was a failure of action by him. It was wrong for him to say silent."
However, he said that there is no "real evidence" that Trump planned the protests or encouraged them, "so I'd think [he'd] be criticized for it, but not indicted ... I think what he did was wrong but not criminal. And ... I just can't believe that this whole thing was somehow orchestrated. This demonstration got out of hand, and it was wrong for the president to stay silent too long. But this is not a crime. This is a failure of action on his part, but not a crime."
He added that if Trump is in trouble for not speaking out after Jan. 6, then Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and others encouraging the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 should also face legal action.
"Kamala Harris was even willing to post bail for people locked up from the demonstrations where so many cops were injured, so many buildings were burned down," said King.
The former congressman also discussed the hearing held this week before the House Oversight Subcommittee on National Security concerning UFOs, saying he thinks the government should be transparent on the matter, but questioned the need for a congressional investigation.
"[With] everything else going on in the world, I can't get that excited over this," King said. "Having said that, people have lost faith in government so as much evidence as can be made public should be made."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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