Democratic congressman-elect Pat Ryan decried former Donald Trump as “traitorous,” criticizing the former president for continually attacking the “the guardrails of democracy.”
Ryan, who won a special election in New York’s 19th Congressional District on Tuesday, bashed Trump after the FBI recovered classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month, denouncing his actions as potentially criminal. Federal officials reportedly obtained more than 300 classified documents from multiple seizures, raising questions about how they were removed from the White House.
DEMOCRAT PAT RYAN WINS BELLWEATHER SPECIAL ELECTION IN NEW YORK
“We are not afraid to call out Donald Trump as someone who, I believe, is essentially traitorous at this point,” Ryan said on Alex Wagner Tonight on Wednesday. “I had a top-secret clearance. I was an Army officer. If I had done what [Trump] did, I would have been in jail … no questions asked.”
It’s a cumulative effect. The guardrails of democracy are increasingly being hit, and that’s a wake-up call. When freedom is at risk and fundamental rights are being trampled on, Americans will stand up. We demonstrated that. https://t.co/PFvPrPy1go
— Pat Ryan ?? (@PatRyanUC) August 25, 2022
Ryan won the special election earlier this week, offering a preview of how abortion messaging could play into the midterm elections. The Democrat’s campaign focused much of its attention on defending access to abortion as well as other areas he considered “threats to democracy,” including actions by Trump before and after he left office.
The National Archives and Records Administration gathered more than 150 documents with classified markings after a search in January, later referring the matter to the Justice Department, which opened an investigation. The DOJ then visited Trump’s Florida residence in June and collected another batch of documents that contained sensitive national security information.
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Amid concerns about the possibility of more classified materials at the resort, Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart authorized the DOJ to execute a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 5, and officials collected another 26 boxes of documents. It was later revealed that Trump was being investigated over obstruction of justice and whether he violated the Espionage Act, according to the search warrant.
Trump has denounced the DOJ for its latest seizure, arguing that he declassified the materials he took with him and denying any wrongdoing. The former president unveiled a lawsuit on Monday, seeking to block the department from reviewing the evidence that was taken from his Mar-a-Lago residence.
