WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury indicted Donald Trump for seven criminal charges in connection with the mishandling of over 100 classified documents discovered at his Mar-a-Lago Resort in Florida last year. This makes the twice-impeached ex-commander-in-chief, the first former President to face federal criminal allegations.
Trump told reporters Thursday night that his lawyers were informed of his indictment in the Special Counsel’s Investigation regarding his handling classified documents. The indictment was confirmed by two sources who are familiar with the case.
In a tweet on his platform True Social, Trump wrote: “The corrupt Biden administration has informed my lawyers that I have apparently been indicted over the Boxes Hoax.”
NBC News confirmed Trump’s arrest. He was summoned to appear at U.S. District Court on June 13th.
John Rowley, Trump’s attorney, said that Trump had been charged with seven counts. Trump’s specific charges are not yet known.
A spokesperson for Special Counsel declined to comment.
According to a source, the indictment has been sealed and the government is therefore unable to comment.
After Trump’s announcement on Truth Social that he had been indicted, he sent a appeal for funds which cited the criminal charges.
The email asked supporters to “make an amount to stand peacefully” with Biden.
The grand jury’s decision is the culmination a long-running Justice Department investigation, now being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith who was appointed as Attorney General Merrick G. Garland.
Smith, who took office in November 2022, after Trump announced that he would run for the Republican Party nomination in 2024, assumed responsibility for investigations already underway into Trump’s handling classified papers found at Mar-a-Lago, as well as “key elements” of the Justice Department investigation into the Jan. 6 attack against the Capitol, and efforts to obstruct a peaceful transfer of power.
Trump faces several investigations. Separately, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged him in April with 34 felony charges of falsifying records relating to his alleged involvement in hush-money payments towards the end of his presidential campaign in 2016. In that case, he pleaded guilty. Trump is also under criminal investigation by Georgia in relation to the 2020 elections.
The federal government has made several attempts to collect files Trump kept during his tenure in the White House after he left office. It also gave him and his legal team multiple chances to turn them over.
After the team of the former president attested to having thoroughly searched for classified documents in the Mar-a-Lago location, the government eventually seized over 11,000 pages, including 100 classified documents.
Trump denied that he did anything wrong. He rebuffed allegations that he handled classified documents incorrectly by saying that he declassified the documents.
Smith, who took office in November 2022, after Trump announced that he would run for the Republican Party nomination in 2024, assumed responsibility for investigations already underway into Trump’s handling classified papers found at Mar-a-Lago, as well as “key elements” of the Justice Department investigation into the Jan. 6 attack against the Capitol, and efforts to obstruct a peaceful transfer of power.
He also has compared his situation with that of President Joe Biden who was found in possession classified documents from the Obama Administration. But , the circumstances are very different.
In early 2022, when Trump returned 15 boxes containing White House documents to the National Archives and Records Administration from Mar-a-Lago, the investigation was sparked. The Presidential Records Act requires that all presidential documents be preserved and transferred to National Archives after each administration. According to court documents, the Archives repeatedly asked Trump’s staff to return documents they believed to be missing.
Archives received the boxes last January and found that the contents contained classified information that was haphazardly mixed together. They asked the DOJ if Trump’s handling the records had violated federal laws.
The review revealed 184 documents with unique classification markings, including 25 classified as “TOP-SECRET,” 67 classified as “confidential”, and 92 classified as “secret”.
Archives asked Trump’s staff to ensure that there were no more documents. A federal grand jury issued a subpoena in May 2022 to Trump, demanding he return all documents in his possession with classified markings.
In early June last year, Trump’s attorneys turned over to the feds some additional documents that were marked classified. They also provided a certificate from their lawyers stating that after a “diligent” search all sensitive records in Trump’s possession had now been returned.
The FBI stated in an affidavit that, according to a heavily-redacted version that was later made public that they had discovered evidence that Trump had not complied with the subpoena, and that he had not handed everything to the federal government.
court records unsealed a federal judge revealed that the affidavit then was used to justify a search at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, which resulted in the recovery of a number of top secret documents and other highly classified materials. the search that Trump referred to as a “raid” by federal agents, removed 11 sets classified documents including some marked secret and top secret. items that the FBI removed included a handwritten letter, information on the “President” of France, a clemency order for Trump ally Roger Stone, and photo binders. The FBI also took a number of papers referred to as “SCI”, which is classified information that has been compartmented.
