Fact-checking Donald Trump’s NC GOP speech: claims on indictment, 2020 election

For one of his first speeches following his most recent indictment, former President Donald Trump was met Saturday with an exuberant crowd of North Carolina Republicans at the state GOP Convention in Greensboro.

Aside from addressing his indictment, Trump spoke at length about the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice, 2020 election results and President Joe Biden.

During his nearly two-hour speech, Trump made several false or misleading statements. The News & Observer is fact-checking his claims here.

Outlining Trump’s indictment

Claim: “But still, you get indicted over nothing?”

Trump’s indictment isn’t based on “nothing.” Federal prosecutors have alleged the former president brought about 300 documents to Mar-a-Lago, his home in Palm Beach, Florida, after his presidency — some 100 of which were seized by the FBI last year in a search of Trump’s residence.

He is facing 37 felony charges for storing and refusing to hand over classified documents.

This is the first time a former president has been indicted on criminal charges.

Calling out the ‘witch hunt’

Claim: “They’ve launched witch hunt after witch hunt. They just tried to stop our movement.”

Trump’s repeated claims of an empty “witch hunt” stem from the monthslong classified documents investigation by the Justice Department.

Those documents were said to include a variety of sensitive information on defense and weaponry, such as U.S. nuclear programs and military plans.

Was Trump allowed to keep the documents?

Claim: “This is a simple thing. It’s all under the Presidential Records Act.”

Claims that Trump was allowed to retain classified documents for a certain period of time under the Presidential Records Act are false, as rebuked by a rare statement from the National Archives and Records Administration.

Under the PRA, all presidential records must be turned over to the NARA by the end of a president’s term. The NARA asserted there is “no history, practice, or provision in law for presidents to take official records with them when they leave office to sort through.”

In the event that former presidents find classified documents in their possession, they are expected to contact the NARA “in a timely manner to secure the transfer.” Allegations that former President Barack Obama took presidential records to Chicago after concluding his term in 2017 were debunked in the NARA statement.

Comparing Trump’s and Biden’s document situations

Claim: “Joe Biden had droves and droves, thousands of boxes of classified documents from his time as vice president, even as a senator.”

This claim is an exaggeration. Around 10 classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center and another “small number” of files were found at Biden’s personal residence, according to the BBC. Trump’s investigation involves more than 300 files.

Although it is true that both Trump and Biden are being investigated by the Justice Department for their possession of classified documents, there is one key difference.

The main contrast between both searches is the level of compliance each man demonstrated with federal investigators. In the Biden search, classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center and his personal Delaware residence, which were reported by Biden’s personal lawyers. A further probe was launched, and the documents were taken by the FBI.

The Trump indictment paints a different picture — one marred by allegations of defiance and disregard. The NARA alleged having a difficult time obtaining documents from Trump’s staff, reporting in October that presidential records had still not been turned in. The Justice Department also said Trump directly hid documents from investigators, which has led to Trump aide Walt Nauta also being indicted for mishandling files.

Biden isn’t completely off the hook though, as the investigation is still ongoing in his case.

Allegations of “partisan prosecutors” and “corrupt” investigators

Claim: “Now the Marxist leftists are once again using the same corrupt DOJ and the same corrupt FBI and attorneys and general and local district attorneys to interfere in our election.”

Federal prosecutors and the Justice Department have served as bogeymen for Trump’s campaign over the past year. The former president has consistently accused the Justice Department of being used to stop his ascension to becoming the Republican nominee, and his barrage of disparaging claims has only intensified in recent days.

In the immediate lead-up to the indictment, Trump took to Truth Social, his social media platform, to accuse the Democratic Party of “using the DOJ & FBI against me to Rigg the 2024 Election.” He also directed his followers to “FIGHT!” before the indictment was handed down.

Promoting resistance against investigators also came up during Trump’s previous indictment in a New York hush money investigation involving porn star Stormy Daniels. After his announcement that he would be arrested, Trump told followers on Truth Social to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”

Several Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, who were both at the Greensboro GOP Convention, have echoed Trump’s attacks by calling the indictment a “weaponization” of the Justice Department and FBI.

There is no evidence that there was any collusion between the Justice Department, FBI, the White House or the Democratic Party. White House staff have insisted several times that Biden learned of the indictment at the time the news broke.

‘Election interference’ and 2020 election result claims

Claim: “They cheated like dogs, they cheated like nobody’s ever cheated before. You turn on your television at 10 o’clock, you would have said Pennsylvania’s on lock. We were up by so much. All of a sudden you see that big fat dump (of votes).”

Ever since the 2020 presidential election was called for Biden, Trump has repeatedly said that the voting was rigged and that he was the rightful winner.

Despite these claims, final election results penned Biden at 306 electoral votes and Trump at 232. Several disputes filed in battleground states by Trump and his attorneys have also been found moot, as reported by other media outlets.

In the 2020 election, Trump was ahead of Biden in Pennsylvania for days but his lead evaporated dramatically after mail-in votes were tallied in the major urban population centers. Democratic voters tend to vote with mail-in ballots more than Republicans, and urban areas tend to lean blue.

A succession of judges and former Attorney General William Barr have also said there is no proof of widespread fraud.

Following fraud claims, Trump now faces investigations in multiple states, including Georgia, where it’s said that Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” his campaign the votes necessary to win.

Claim: “The governor of Texas called me right after the election: ‘You’ve done something that’s unprecedented. You won every single town along the border, mostly Hispanic.’”

This is a largely false statement Trump has repeated since last year. In both the 2016 and 2020 elections, Trump did not win all the counties along the Texas-Mexico border. Half of those 14 counties went to Biden in 2020, according to the Texas Tribune.

Trump did gain some traction in the border counties between 2016 and 2020, as nine border counties went to Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi contributed to this report.