June 11, 2023, news on Donald Trump's federal indictment

Former Attorney General Bill Barr heavily criticized claims by former President Donald Trump and some of his allies that he is being targeted and unfairly treated by the federal government in its case against him for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office.

"This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here, a victim of a witch hunt, is ridiculous. Yes, he's been a victim in the past. Yes, his adversaries have obsessively pursued him with phony claims. And I've been at his side, defending against them when he is a victim. But this is much different. He's not a victim here," Barr told "Fox News Sunday."

Barr said Trump was "totally wrong" in saying he had the right to retain the classified documents.

"Those documents are among the most sensitive secrets the country has," Barr said. "He had no right to maintain them and retain them. And he kept them in a way in Mar-a-Lago, that anyone who really cares about national security — their stomach would churn at it."

While noting that Trump has a right to a defense, Barr described the indictment as "very damning" and the counts as "solid." He said it was "perfectly appropriate" for the government to try and recover the documents the former president had stored at his resort in Florida.

The former attorney general also pushed back against claims by Trump and others that what he had done was similar to the practice of former presidents (and which CNN and others have also fact-checked extensively).

Watch more here:

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who has teased a run for president in 2024, said Sunday that the news of Donald Trump's first federal indictment "feels wrong at some level."  

The former president faces 37 felony counts, which include charges related to the willful retention of national defense information, according to the indictment unsealed Friday.  

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Suarez said Trump, seen as the current front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination, should "definitely should be presumed innocent."   

"This is just — just feels un-American. It feels wrong at some level, and I think people are very frustrated that they don’t see the equal application of justice, that they don't see the same fervor, the same intensity of investigations and prosecutions, on the other side of the aisle," Suarez said.   

Suarez did not say Sunday if he would soon launch a bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, but he teased a "big" announcement Thursday when he speaks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

"My announcement is to stay tuned," Suarez said. "Next week I'm going to be making, like you said, a big speech in the Reagan library, and I think it's one that America should tune into."   

Former President Donald Trump will deliver remarks at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Tuesday at 8:15 p.m. ET, according to a news release from his campaign. 

His remarks at the Trump National Golf Club will follow his expected court appearance in Miami, where he will be read the federal charges against him in the classified documents case. Trump is expected to enter a not guilty plea. 

According to the indictment unsealed Friday, Trump faces a total of 37 counts, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information. The 49-page indictment included new details about how Trump allegedly took classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after leaving office in 2021 and resisted the government's attempts to retrieve the classified materials.

Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson on Sunday called the federal indictment against former President Donald Trump "very solid" and urged Americans to "let the criminal justice system work."

Hutchinson, a former Arkansas governor, spoke to CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" following the unsealing of Trump's 37-count indictment related to his handling of classified documents after leaving office.

"We need to take a deep breath and let the criminal justice system work. And let’s look at our future and, particularly, what kind of a leader do we need as commander in chief in the future? We need somebody who has a high regard for military secrets, for classified documents, and for the rule of law," Hutchinson said.

While Hutchinson said it was "obviously a very solid" indictment, he said special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed to investigate the retention of national defense information at Mar-a-Lago, will have have a "challenging time" proving his case.

"Not because the facts are weak, but simply because you're going after a former president, and you just have one juror that happens to be a Trump supporter or happens to be of a different viewpoint, you're not going to be able to get a conviction," said Hutchinson, a former federal prosecutor.

"This is a challenging case for the government, and it’ll be interesting to see how it proceeds forward. This is an unprecedented time, whenever you think about the president of the United States, Joe Biden, under investigation. You think about the former president, who’s running for office, who is under indictment and continues under investigation," he added.

Biden is facing his own special counsel investigation into documents from his time as vice president found at his home and former private office.

Hutchinson, who announced his presidential candidacy in April, served as US attorney for the Western District of Arkansas under President Ronald Reagan. He later also served as a congressman and in the George W. Bush administration as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and as a Department of Homeland Security undersecretary.

The evidence in the indictment against Donald Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office can seem “jaw-dropping”.

The case marks the first time a former president has been indicted in federal court and just the second time a former president had been indicted anywhere (after Trump himself, earlier this year in New York county court).

What makes the charges even more ahistorical is that they come at a time when Trump is running for president. So just how will this new indictment play on the campaign trail?

Let’s just say we should be, at least initially, skeptical that Trump will be penalized in the polls.

Read the full analysis here.

New polls from ABC News and CBS News conducted in the days since Donald Trump's federal indictment became public suggest that most Americans see a security risk in the former president's actions and consider the charges to be serious.

But neither poll suggests much movement in overall views of Trump, particularly among Republicans. Both surveys also find a significant share concerned that the charges are politically motivated, though that view is largely driven by Republicans.

According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll, fielded June 9-10, 61% of Americans said the federal charges Trump faces are very or somewhat serious, while 28% said they are not serious. Majorities of Democrats (91%) and independents (63%) said the charges are serious, while 38% of Republicans felt the same way.

About half the respondents said they saw the charges against Trump as politically motivated (47%), while 37% did not and 16% said they weren't sure. Republicans overwhelmingly viewed the charges as political (80%), while most Democrats (71%) said they were not politically motivated.

Thirty-one percent of respondents said they have a favorable view of Trump, similar to where he stood in another ABC/Ipsos poll earlier in the spring (29% favorable in a survey fielded March 31-April 1).

The CBS News/YouGov poll found that 69% of Americans feel it would be a security risk if Trump "did have documents regarding US nuclear systems or military plans in his home after leaving office," while 31% said that would not be a risk.

But the public is split over whether the national security risk (38%) or political motivations behind the indictment (38%) are a bigger concern, with 23% saying they are concerned about both issues.

Per the CBS poll, among likely Republican primary voters, far fewer saw Trump's possible possession of nuclear and military documents as a security risk (just 38% said so). In contrast, 76% said political motivations were a bigger issue than the national security risk, 12% said they were more concerned about security and 12% said both.

Notably, just 7% of likely GOP primary voters said the indictment was likely to worsen their view of Trump, while 61% said it was unlikely to change their view of the former president, and 14% said it could change it for the better. About 1 in 6 (18%) said it depends on what they learn in the coming weeks.

Read more about the criminal case against Donald Trump here.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who joined the Republican race for president last week, said Sunday following Donald Trump's federal indictment that he would follow all the rules regarding classified documents if he were elected president.

In an interview with CBS News, Burgum vowed to "follow every rule related to handling classified documents" on potentially leaving office as president.

The former software executive and real estate developer is the latest GOP contender to enter his name into the hat to take on President Joe Biden in 2024, though with considerably less national name recognition than many primary rivals.

He told Fox News on Saturday that Trump’s handling of classified documents was not something that voters want to spend their time talking about. 

“When we’re on the road in Iowa the last two days and here in New Hampshire talking about the economy, energy policy, national security, those are the things that are hitting every American every single day,” he said.

Burgum did not directly comment Sunday on Trump's federal indictment but did say, “I think obviously the way we’ve conducted ourselves when I was the CEO, when I’ve been governor, when you have the responsibility of the top spot, it’s important to make sure you’re not only doing a great job for the people you’re serving, but when you’re the officeholder for a period of time, and there’s a dignity and a discipline that goes with being a governor and goes with being the president and certainly, we would strive to uphold that going forward because it’s such a key institution.”

Burgum has positioned himself as a conservative with some moderate tendencies in the GOP primary. As governor, he signed legislation banning gender-affirming care for most minors and helped enact a near-total ban on abortions in North Dakota this year, while also setting a goal in 2021 for the state to be “carbon-neutral” by 2030.

“I know when you’re in the top spot, in the executive role, how you pick your priorities, what you focus on, you have the opportunity to improve the life of every citizen,” Burgum told CBS News, citing the economy, energy policy and national security as his top three priorities.

“The Biden administration is 180 degrees in the wrong direction,” the governor said.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire said Sunday that GOP presidential candidates must be "clear and transparent" and "come out in concert" against Donald Trump following the former president federal indictment.

"It's a party message that's very, very important because Donald Trump doesn't represent the Republican Party, he only represents himself," Sununu told CBS News on Sunday. "Everyone has to acknowledge the realities of the severity of these accusations and these allegations and the fact that they, again, they're very real, they're self-inflicted. This is nothing like anything we've seen before.

The GOP governor, who announced on CNN last week that he would not run for president, said the Justice Department holds “the responsibility of showing how it's not political, to give that confidence and that trust in the system."

"It has to be explained to the American people," Sununu said.  

Read more about the criminal case against Donald Trump here.

Former President Donald Trump said Saturday he doesn’t anticipate taking a plea deal if offered one following his federal indictment on 37 counts related to his handling of classified documents since leaving office.

The 2024 GOP front-runner also vowed again to stay in the presidential race, even if convicted. 

“I’ll never leave,” Trump told Politico in an interview aboard his plane Saturday. “Look, if I would have left, I would have left prior to the original race in 2016. That was a rough one. In theory that was not doable.”

Trump spent Saturday traveling to state GOP conventions in Georgia and North Carolina, where he offered his first public remarks since the Justice Department unsealed its indictment laying out the government’s case against him and aide Walt Nauta.

“Nobody wants to be indicted,” Trump told Politico. “I don’t care that my poll numbers went up by a lot. I don’t want to be indicted. I’ve never been indicted. I went through my whole life, now I get indicted every two months. It’s been political.”

Trump attorney Alina Habba, who is not on his defense team for the classified documents case but still advises the former president, said on “Fox News Sunday" that she could “never imagine” him taking a plea deal.

"You take a plea deal to make something go away. That’s an admission of guilt. He would never admit guilt because there was nothing wrong with declassifying documents, taking documents with you, negotiating with NARA,” Habba said.

Read a CNN fact check of Trump's claims about the documents investigation here.