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Donald Trump "will die in federal prison if the Department of Justice gets its way" due to the maximum sentence possibilities for his alleged crimes, according to Fox News host Mark Levin.
The former president faces at least seven criminal charges related to Special Counsel Jack Smith's classified documents probe.
Trump said he is innocent in a series of Truth Social posts on June 8 and called this latest development "the greatest witch hunt of all time."
Peter Carr, senior communications advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice, spoke to Newsweek about the charges against Trump and his aide and co-defendant Waltine Nauta.
"An indictment returned on Thursday, June 8, in the Southern District of Florida charging Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta was unsealed [Friday].
"The defendants have been summoned to appear on Tuesday, June 13, at 3 p.m. in Courtroom 13-3 at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. Federal Courthouse in Miami.
"Trump has been charged with willful retention of national defense information; conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding a document or record; corruptly concealing a document in a federal investigation; scheme to conceal; and false statements and representations.
"Nauta has been charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding a document or record; corruptly concealing a document in a federal investigation; scheme to conceal; and false statements and representations."
Levin, speaking on Sean Hannity's Fox News show on Thursday night, defended the former president.
"President Trump is 76 years old. If the Department of Justice gets its way, he will die in federal prison, just by one of these counts—conspiracy to obstruct justice, which has a 20-year maximum sentence," Levin said.
"This is a disgusting mark on American history for the future to come, by these bandits in the White House, by the Democrat party who don't play fair anymore. They don't want to just win elections, they want to take control of this country, they want one-party rule.
"They have used the Department of Justice and the FBI to get what they want."
As he continued to discuss Trump's legal woes, Levin appeared to lose his temper. His reaction has since gone viral on social media.
In a clip that has so far been viewed more than 200,000 times, Levin claimed Trump has been denied due process as his attorneys were interviewed as part of the investigation.
Fox is taking the news well pic.twitter.com/34tg9OG80j
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 9, 2023
"They are throwing all these process crimes and all these crimes that grow out of the criminal investigation against Trump," Levin said.
"What did he do with the documents? Did he sell them to the enemy? No. That is why we have an Espionage Act—not to trip up a president.
"What did he do? Did he burn them all? No, the government has all the documents back, so there is no violation of the Presidential Records Act, at this point.
"But they throw the book at him? They go after his attorneys, they make them testify, their attorneys under the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege. That means he didn't have due process."
In March 2023, ABC News reported that Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer for Trump, had voluntarily testified before the grand jury. Having testified, he accused the prosecutors of misconduct and alleged they made "attempts to pierce privilege."
Newsweek has contacted Donald Trump's legal team via email for comment.
Update 6/13/23, 3:14 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Peter Carr, senior communications advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice.
About the writer
Gerrard Kaonga is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter and is based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on U.S. ... Read more