Hawley rushes to defend Trump after indictment as Republicans deploy familiar strategy

Republicans from Missouri and Kansas rushed to defend former President Donald Trump after his federal indictment on allegations he mishandled classified documents and obstructed justice, deploying a familiar playbook to portray charges brought by an independent special prosecutor as political persecution.

Shortly after Trump wrote Thursday that he’d been indicted on social media, Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, appeared on Fox News to denounce the charges against the former president, casting the indictment through the political lens of the 2024 presidential election.

“This is not about Donald Trump ultimately, this is about the United States of America,” Hawley told host Laura Ingraham. “This is about whether the constitution is still real in this country. This is about if any American can expect the due process of law.”

Their comments came before the indictment, which was returned by a grand jury in Miami, had been unsealed.

The indictment, unsealed Friday afternoon, accused Trump of possessing documents regarding United States nuclear programs, the defense capabilities of the United States and foreign countries and the potential vulnerabilities of the United States. A picture in the indictment showed that Trump at times stored the boxes of documents on a stage in a ballroom where events were hosted.

But Republicans quickly circled the wagons around the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner, casting the charges as a political effort by Democratic President Joe Biden to take down his likely opponent, even though Biden played no direct role in the investigation. While Biden oversees the executive branch, the investigation was triggered when the National Archives found that several boxes of documents had been taken to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, rather than left with the Archives.

Prosecutors at the Department of Justice have alleged Trump took 300 classified documents to his resort after he left office, including around 100 documents found after the FBI searched his resort last August. Instead of condemning Trump’s handling of government secrets, the political right reacted with outrage. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who was nominated to lead the Department of Justice by Biden, appointed Jack Smith as special counsel in an attempt to avoid the appearance of political influence.

The move did little to satisfy many Republicans, who appear galvanized by Trump’s legal issues. An earlier New York indictment by a Manhattan grand jury over alleged hush money payments made to a former adult performer during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign did little to affect Trump’s standing in early primary polls.

Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, claimed the new federal indictment was part of a concerted effort by the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation to take down the former president.

“Every American should be alarmed by tonight’s indictment,” Marshall said in a statement posted to Twitter. “Sadly, once again, Lady Justice has taken off her blindfold.”

“The continued persecution of the President’s likely 2024 political opponent has revealed the alarming level of coordination and corruption within our justice department,” he said.

Others went farther, falsely claiming Biden himself brought the charges against Trump.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, a former Republican Missouri attorney general, called Biden “the most compromised President in modern American history” and claimed Trump’s indictment was intended as a distraction. Schmitt has endorsed Trump for president in 2024.

“Joe Biden has now indicted his top political opponent,” Schmitt wrote on Twitter. “Full on Banana Republic stuff.”

Biden had no role in determining whether Smith would seek an indictment. In a press conference Thursday before the indictment, he said Americans should trust the independence of the Department of Justice.

“I have never once – not one single time – suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do, relative to bringing a charge or not bringing a charge,” Biden said. “I’m honest.”

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, said the indictment is an example of the Department of Justice treating every citizen equally under law, adding that he believed everyone is innocent until proven guilty, including the former president.

“Democracy is under no obligation to only provide this nation with patriotic euphoria,” Cleaver said. “This indictment is not a moment for frenzied eruptions of partisan glee. Such a shameful moment in our history deserves no celebration, but rather, demands self-reflection and introspection.”

Republicans have long been aware of Trump’s legal troubles heading into the 2024 presidential election. Along with the indictments in New York and Miami, prosecutors in Atlanta are looking into whether Trump attempted to interfere with the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

Trump’s attorney said on CNN Thursday that the former president faces charges of willful retention of national defense information, obstruction, false statements and conspiracy.

Earlier this year it was revealed that both former Vice President Mike Pence and Biden had some classified documents in their possession after they left office. Both alerted federal officials that they had found the documents and allowed them to perform a larger search of locations where documents may be kept.

Republicans were quick to use Pence and Biden to downplay the allegations against Trump, even as evidence was revealed that Trump withheld documents from the National Archives and falsely claimed he had declassified them as president.

Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson claimed the Justice Department was unfairly going after Trump and not Biden. A special prosecutor is also looking into Biden’s handling of classified documents after his term in the Obama administration.

“We know these aggressive investigations are only taking place because President Trump dares to challenge Joe Biden’s disastrous presidency, and I am deeply concerned for the direction of our country,” Parson wrote on Twitter. “These political prosecutions must end.”

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, also implied the charges were political.

“Never before has a sitting President weaponized the security apparatus of our great nation to take out a political opponent,” Bailey said. “This is not the America our Founders knew.

Rep. Mark Alford, a Missouri Republican, claimed the charges were only brought because Trump has launched a campaign for president.

“The political persecution and witch hunt continues for Donald Trump,” Alford wrote. “I guarantee that if he weren’t running for President this would NOT be happening.”

The response among Democrats varied, with some like Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, calling Trump the “former white supremacist-in-chief” and saying he should be held accountable, and others calling for the legal process to run its course.

Rep. Sharice Davids, a Kansas Democrat, believes “no one is above the law, including elected officials,” spokesman Zac Donley said. “She has faith in the American justice system and will learn more, alongside the public, as more details are released.”

Star reporters Katie Bernard and Kacen Bayless and the Associated Press contributed reporting.