Trump calls the special counsel a “thug” and “crazy” on his first appearance after the indictment.

GREENSBORO, NC — Former President Donald Trump’s attempted coup on Saturday attacked the special counsel who had charged him with withholding and conspiring to keep secret national security documents secret, calling him a “thug,” “maniac,” and a “thug” in his first attempt “Trump haters”. public appearances since a federal grand jury found 37 counts of indictment against him.

“They cheated like dogs,” he said at the North Carolina Republican Party’s annual convention, repeating his well-known lies about having the 2020 election stolen from him.

In the ballroom of the Greensboro Sheraton and earlier at a campaign stop in Georgia, he railed against the new charges against him, claiming they were politically motivated.

“The ridiculous and unfounded charges brought against me by the Biden administration’s weaponized Justice Department will be remembered as one of the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” he told attendees at the Georgia Republican Party’s state convention in Columbus. “This brutal persecution is a travesty of justice… Biden is trying to jail his leading political opponent.”

Trump is accused of possessing classified documents at his Florida country club, conspiring to hide them from federal authorities and a grand jury, leaking national defense documents to unauthorized parties and providing false information to investigators.

The most serious charges carry a 20-year sentence in federal prison if convicted.

However, Trump reiterated on Saturday that he had a right to the documents and that he had done nothing wrong. “We didn’t obstruct anything,” he said. He then called Special Counsel Jack Smith a “thug,” “insane,” and a “Trump hater,” and ranted about how he was charged but not former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden. A few hours later, he added “crazy” to his insult list.

Thursday’s indictment detailed how Trump instructed an employee to retrieve boxes of documents from a storage room where they could not be found by one of his attorneys, who was supposed to search them for classified material to be turned over to the Secret Service could FBI. It also describes how Trump advised his lawyers to simply get rid of classified documents that, if found by authorities, could cause him problems.

On Friday, Trump told his millions of followers on his social media page, “See you Tuesday in Miami!!!” — recalling his December 19, 2020 Twitter post, in which he urged his followers to meet on December 6 January in Washington, DC: “Be there, it’s going to be wild!”

Trump will be indicted on the new charges at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Miami federal courthouse. Trump’s supporters turned into an angry mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, particularly after he attacked his own Vice President Mike Pence for lacking the “courage” to reverse his election defeat for him. Five police officers were killed in the scuffle and 140 others were injured.

Trump, who last year called for massive protests from his supporters if he were charged, alluded to violence in his 83-minute speech on Saturday. “Our people are angry,” he said. “And sometimes you need strength. You have to have strength, more than just normal strength. And we have to change something, because we won’t have any country left.”

Trump currently faces two charges: in federal court in Miami last week and one in New York City in March on charges that he forged business records in the days leading up to the 2016 election to obtain a $130,000 hush money payment to a hide porn star.

He also faces two ongoing criminal investigations that could lead to more indictments: a second investigation by the DOJ into his actions leading up to and during his attempted coup on January 6, 2021, and another investigation by Georgian prosecutors investigating his attempt, state officials to overthrow his electoral defeat in that state.

In his remarks in Columbus, Trump also attacked Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, calling her a “crazy Marxist prosecutor.” She is expected to announce charges from her investigation in August.