On Thursday, a federal grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump in connection with the investigation into his handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. This is the first time in history that the federal government has brought charges against a former president.
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Trump was charged with seven counts, including violations of the Espionage Act, which prohibits the misuse of classified information, obstruction, and fraudulent statements. James Trusty, an attorney for Trump, verified these counts on CNN.
Trump stated in a post on Truth Social that his attorneys had been informed of his indictment in connection with the “Boxes Hoax.” Trump asserted his innocence and said he was required to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday.
Even though prosecutors demanded the return of all such documents last year, prosecutors have been constructing a case alleging that Trump intentionally withheld sensitive documents related to U.S. intelligence and defence plans for months. The indictment was lodged under seal and has not been released to the public as of yet.
“I never imagined that something like this could happen to a former United States president,” Trump said, adding, “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!”
The indictment is an extraordinary event in which a presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has been charged with a crime by an administration headed by his potential rival in 2024, President Biden. White House officials had no comment.
Earlier in the day, when asked about the independence of the Justice Department, Biden stated: “I have never, not even once, suggested to the Justice Department what they should or should not do in terms of bringing charges or not bringing charges. I’m honest.”
The spokesperson for special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the investigation into the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago for the Justice Department, declined to comment.
During the months that a grand jury in Washington, D.C., heard testimony about the handling of the documents, witnesses began appearing before a distinct panel in Miami as federal prosecutors deliberated whether to file a case in Florida or Washington. Prosecutors filed charges in Miami because their investigation centred on Trump’s actions at Mar-a-Lago, which is located in that state.
Thursday at the federal courthouse in Miami, reporters waited outside the chamber where the grand jury voted to indict the former president. David Harbach, one of Smith’s top prosecutors, was spotted entering the courthouse at one point, but there was little indication of what was occurring during the proceedings.
The panel went in person to a magistrate judge at 3:45 p.m. to deliver its verdict, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Reporters were informed minutes later that the grand jury had departed.
The federal allegations increase Trump’s legal risk as the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 heats up, with Trump as the front-runner. Trump, 76 years old, is already facing criminal charges in New York as a result of an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney into his involvement in a hush-money payment made during the closing stages of the 2016 presidential election to a porn star who claimed to have had an affair with him.
In the meantime, a local prosecutor in Georgia stated that she intends to file criminal charges in August related to Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. In the New York and Georgia cases, Trump has denied culpability and accused prosecutors of pursuing him for political reasons.
After the indictment, the Trump campaign promptly began fundraising on Thursday. Trump wrote in an email to his supporters, “Please make a contribution to peacefully stand with me today and demonstrate that YOU will NEVER surrender our country to the radical Left — for a 1,500% impact.”
The federal indictment is the first to result from an investigation conducted by Smith, the former war-crimes and public-corruption prosecutor whom Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed to oversee two Trump-related investigations after the former president declared his candidature for re-election in November.
As a special counsel, Smith has broad discretion to conduct the investigation and file charges, but he ultimately reports to Garland, who has the authority to overrule Smith if he disagrees with his decision to file charges. Biden stated that he selected Garland, a former federal appeals court justice, in part because Garland stated that he would safeguard the department’s autonomy.
In addition to the documents investigation, Smith’s team is conducting a separate investigation into Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, and how those efforts related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. According to individuals familiar with the investigation, Smith’s team has issued subpoenas and obtained grand jury testimony in recent weeks indicating that the investigation is focused on Trump’s fundraising after the 2020 election.
While the Jan. 6 investigation has been ongoing for more than two years, the documents investigation dates back to early 2022, when the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from Mar-a-Lago that were supposed to be transferred from the White House to the archives and discovered that they contained more than 100 classified documents.
Using a subpoena, the Justice Department sought to recover any additional classified documents that may have remained on the Florida property. After a representative for Trump stated that the former president had turned over the remaining documents, the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained evidence that additional such papers were on the premises, and agents executed a search warrant and recovered hundreds more in August of last year.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Smith’s team interviewed nearly every employee at Trump’s Florida residence, from senior political aides to maids and maintenance staff, as part of the investigation into the documents.
In recent months, Smith’s team has zeroed in on several key pieces of evidence, including an audio recording in which Trump admits to keeping a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran and extensive notes from one of Trump’s attorneys about the investigation, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
On June 5, Trump’s attorneys conferred with Justice Department officials to prevent an indictment.
A separate special counsel is currently investigating how and why classified documents from Biden’s tenure as vice president were discovered at his home and office. The Justice Department concluded a third investigation into comparable documents discovered at the Indiana residence of former Vice President Mike Pence on June 1.
