Former US President Donald Trump confirmed Friday that he will not back down from his candidacy for the White House if he is convicted and sentenced in any of the criminal investigations against him.
Trump, 77, the front-runner in the 2024 Republican primaries, was asked about the federal charges and charges he faces a day after federal prosecutors added three criminal charges to the indictment against him related to the classified documents case.
In an interview with right-wing broadcaster John Fredericks on the radio, the former president said, in response to a question if he would stop his campaign if he was sentenced, "Not at all. There is nothing in the constitution that says it can."
"Even the lunatics on the far left say absolutely no and this won't stop me," he added. "These people are sick. What they're doing is absolutely horrible."
Trump said that former presidents, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush, had "taken documents," noting that his predecessors had committed similar behavior to the crimes he was accused of committing.
"No one has gone through this. It's crazy," he said.
Trump was previously charged in early June in the context of this file. But in a court document published Thursday, federal prosecutors accuse the former president of trying to erase surveillance camera footage from his residence in Florida, to avoid it falling into the hands of investigators.
Trump and two of his aides are accused of having asked an employee at the residence to "delete surveillance camera footage from the Mar-a-Lago club to avoid handing over these images" to the judiciary.
