Saturday afternoon former President Donald Trump made his first speech since announcing on Truth Social that he had been indicted by a federal grand jury on criminal charges relating to his alleged mishandling of classified White House documents. The indictment, which was unsealed Friday, contains 37 felony counts, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding documents, corruptly concealing records, concealing documents in a federal investigation, scheming to conceal, and making false statements.

Trump, accompanied by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), spoke at the Georgia Republican Party convention. He was fired up, as one might expect, calling the indictment “election interference” and “a political hit job.” Referring to the indictment as “ridiculous” and “baseless,” Trump said:

The ridiculous and baseless indictment by the Biden administration’s weaponized Department of Injustice will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country.

[..]

They’ve launched one witch hunt after another to try and stop our movement, to thwart the will of the American people. … In the end, they’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you.

Numerous legal experts weighed in after reading the indictment, including Jonathan Turley, Andrew McCarthy, Alan Dershowitz, and Mike Davis. While there were differences of opinion as to whether or not the Espionage Act applies and the role of declassification, legal experts on the conservative side of the aisle have all agreed that they believe the prosecution is politically motivated.

“Republicans are treated much differently at the Justice Department than Democrats,” Trump said, which is perhaps the understatement of the decade, given the multiple relentless attacks he’s endured from everyone from Nancy Pelosi to James Comey to Merrick Garland and the Justice Department.

To that point, Trump told the rally:

“Every time I fly over a blue state I get a subpoena. The only good thing about it is that it’s driven my poll numbers way up. Can you believe it?

“This vicious persecution is a travesty of justice. You’re watching Joe Biden [try] to jail his leading political opponent – an opponent that is beating him by a lot in the polls – just like they do in Stalinist Russia, or communist China. No different.

“Our country has gone very bad…Just think of it – in three years.

“Together we will stand up to globalists, the Marxists’ as well as ‘the communists, environmental extremists, the open border fanatics the radical left, the prosecutors and the fake news media.

“Our country has tears because of what’s happening. We have fake elections, we have no borders, we have inflation, we have – everything is just going wrong.

“We now have two standards of justice in our country. The Democrat Communists who jail their opponents while they protect the murderers who prowl our cities day and night, and other brazen criminals.

“To thunderous applause, Trump added, “No criminal is more protected than crooked Joe Biden.”

Watch Trump’s full remarks below.

The Bottom Line

There is no bottom line, yet. Not one that matters, anyway.

While Trump’s case will play out the way it plays out — regardless of the opinions, considered or not from outside a Miami courtroom, the various House GOP  investigations into Joe Biden and the Biden Family business will play out, as well.

With the 2024 presidential election 17 months away, If we’ve learned anything over the last several years, it’s that damn near anything can happen.