A former cabinet official who served in the Trump administration said Friday that the indictment against his former boss isn’t politically motivated, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Mark Esper, who served as Secretary of Defense under Trump, expressed his view about the 37-count indictment Trump is facing in connection with the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago while speaking before business and political leaders in downtown Salt Lake City, the report said.
“I think some of the investigations have been politically tinged against him. This one, I don’t think so,” Esper said.
Esper said the allegations against Trump are “serious.”
“It was clear he had classified documents. I know what’s important about handling classified documents. This is serious. If you were a young soldier, sailor, or airman and had classified documents at your home, you’d be court-martialed. You could see jail time.”
Esper did not say whether he believes his former boss broke the law.
“There are two basic principles. Nobody is above the law, and everybody is innocent until proven guilty,” Esper said.
Trump appointed Esper Acting Secretary of Defense June 19, 2019, and the Senate confirmed him to the post July 23 of that year. Trump fired Esper Nov. 8, 2020 in a tweet.
Esper on Friday issued a call for unity among growing hyperpartisanship.
“The wings of the two parties are pushing the reasonable middle around. We get trapped in these partisan fights. We get trapped in the name-calling,” Esper said.
“We have an enormous debt of $32 trillion. The interest on that debt we pay every year is about $500 billion. The defense budget is $800 billion. We have to fix our debt problem, but we’ll never get to that until we solve our partisan differences.”
