Donald Trump has gone on the offensive, demanding again that he be declared the official winner of the 2020 US presidential elections.
The renewed call came even as the US Justice Department put the former president on the offensive over the raid at his Mar-a-Lago home.
Trump insisted on Monday that he is the "rightful winner" of the 2020 election. Trump made the claim again after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed earlier that the social media organisation suppressed the the damaging story of Hunter Biden's laptop scandal ahead of the elections in 2020. The Facebook move came under the direction of the FBI, which apparently aimed at limiting damage for the Joe Biden campaign. If they had not done that he would have "easily won the 2020 Presidential Election," he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
"So now it comes out, conclusively, that the FBI buried the Hunter Biden laptop story before the election ..This is massive fraud and election interference at a level never seen before in our country," the former president continued, adding that as a "remedy," he should be declared the "rightful winner," or that the government should "declare the 2020 election irreparably compromised and have a new election, immediately!"
According to Zuckerberg, Facebook was nudged into limiting the reach of the New York Post report that threw light on the infamous Hunter Biden laptop. There was a smear campaign against the Post following the publication of the laptop story. However, the laptops have since been independently verified as genuine.
The laptop contained details of Hunter's drug use, time with sex workers, and foreign business dealings that cast a shadow on the time Biden served as the US vice-president.
According to Zuckerberg, FBIcame to themand warned that that the laptop story is Russian propaganda.
Trump's charge came on a day when the FBI said a limited set of materials that it found at Trump's Mar-a Lago home potentially contained material covered by attorney-client privilege.
"[T]he Privilege Review Team ... identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information, completed its review of those materials, and is in the process of following the procedures set forth in paragraph 84 of the search warrant affidavit to address potential privilege disputes, if any," the DOJ filing said.
Earlier, influential US Senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham flagged double standards at the US Justice Department when it comes to allegations against Trump.
The South Carolina Republican said there will be riots on the streets if the DoJ goes ahead with prosecuting Trump.
"Most Republicans, including me, believes when it comes to Trump, there is no law. It's all about getting him ... There is a double standard when it comes to Trump. What happened with Hunter Biden is that the FBI weighed in to make sure the story didn't break before the 2020 election. We now have whistleblowers at the FBI telling Sen. [Chuck] Grassley that they were told to slow down and back off Hunter Biden. And I'll say this, if there is a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information after the Clinton debacle ... there will be riots in the street," Graham said.
"If they tried to prosecute President Trump for mishandling classified information after Hillary Clinton set up a server in her basement, there literally will be riots in the street. I worry about the country," Graham added.
