Former President Trump: ‘Never Told Anyone to Delete’ Security Tapes


After being given a superseding indictment on Thursday evening by special counsel Jack Smith, former President Donald Trump denies that he sought to have security footage destroyed at his private residence.

“Mar-a-Lago security tapes were not deleted,” the former president wrote Sunday morning on his social media site, Truth Social. “They were voluntarily handed over to the thugs, headed up by deranged Jack Smith. We did not even go to court to stop them from getting these tapes. I never told anybody to delete them. Prosecutorial fiction & misconduct! Election interference!”

Trump continued his campaign mantra that President Joe Biden sought to prosecute, investigate, and “persecute” his political opposition. He said weaponizing justice on a “fake crime” is intended to try to catch him on “obstruction.”

“Same as the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX,” added Trump in another post. “They knowingly accuse you of a fake crime, a crime that they actually make up, you fight these false charges hard, and they try and get you on ‘obstruction.'”

“We are dealing with sick and evil people!” he continued.

Only hours later, on Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Smith’s Justice Department “thugs” are “now admitting” the security footage at Mar-a-Lago was not deleted.

“The crooked election interference ‘thugs’ from the DOJ, headed by the worst thug of them all, Deranged Jack Smith, are not admitting that the Mar-a-Lago security tapes were NOT DELETED,” wrote Trump. 

He continued, “That’s not what they were illegally leaking to the press. These guys should be prosecuted for misconduct. Also, whatever happened to Crooked Joe’s documents? Where are the ones he sent and stored in Chinatown? Is Deranged Jack going to indict him for this and, at the same time, receiving bribes from China?” 

Trump made several vows to challenge the “Biden crime family”

The former president made several vows in his Erie, Pennsylvania, Make American Great Again rally speech on Saturday night, including primary challenges for Republicans who refuse to bring Democrats, Biden operatives, and anti-Trump forces to account, along with an investigation by an independent special counsel into allegations of wrongdoing by the “Biden crime family.”

In contrast to the Trump administration bringing special counsel Robert Mueller forward to investigate political claims by the Democrats of Russian election interference on behalf of the Trump campaign, President Biden has refused to appoint a special counsel to investigate the GOP’s allegations of a global Biden influence peddling and bribery scheme. 

Although doing so at this point would slow-walk accountability from before the 2024 presidential election, possibly delaying it for years, House Republicans are now weighing bringing impeachment inquiries into Attorney General Merrick Garland, President Biden, and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. 

Of note, Trump was the only president in the history of the U.S. to be impeached twice by a Democrat-led House. Both times allegations were founded on efforts to investigate alleged Democrat and Biden schemes, including contesting the 2020 presidential election of Biden, the Democrats’ allegation of “incitement of insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and pausing Ukraine aid to investigate bribery through Hunter Biden’s ties to Burisma, a Ukraine energy company.

Both of the Democrat-led impeachment trials failed to convict in the GOP-held Senate.