Donald Trump has been indicted for mishandling of classified documents and summoned to appear before a federal judge in Miami, he announced on Thursday.
Trump, who has always insisted he had the right to take any documents he wanted from the White House, declared he was innocent.
He has been charged with seven counts, CNN said, although the detail of the counts remains unknown. Security is already being increased around the courthouse in Miami ahead of his appearance before a judge on Tuesday.
It is the first time that a former president of the United States has been federally charged. In April, Trump was arrested on New York state charges related to covering up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
‘The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, D.C., with even more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is “secured” by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
‘I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM. I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election. I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!’
Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he had been indicted for mishandling classified documents
The investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents is being overseen by a special counsel, Jack Smith, who was appointed by the Attorney General Merrick Garland in November.
On Monday, Trump’s attorneys met with Smith and his team in Washington DC.
On Wednesday, it was confirmed that Trump was an official target of the investigation.
Trump himself is currently in Bedminster, New Jersey, huddled with his advisors.
Smith’s team has not commented on the charges.
Trump attorneys Lindsey Halligan, from left, John Rowley and James Trusty exit the Department of Justice on Monday after meeting with federal prosecutors
The Justice Department manual states that prosecutors may send a ‘target letter’ to those who are likely to be charged in connection with a grand jury probe.
The move is designed to give them an opportunity to testify before an indictment comes down. It is not a guarantee that charges will be filed.
Prosecutors consider a target a person for whom there is ‘substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant.’
Trump denied he had been told he was being indicted but said he assumed for years he would be a target.
He wrote on Truth Social: ‘No one has told me I’m being indicted, and I shouldn’t be because I’ve done NOTHING wrong, but I have assumed for years that I am a Target of the WEAPONIZED DOJ & FBI, starting with the Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX, the ‘No Collusion’ Mueller Report, Impeachment HOAX, Impeachment HOAX, the PERFECT Ukraine phone call, and various other SCAMS & WITCH HUNTS.
‘A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE & ELECTION INTERFERENCE AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE.
‘REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS MUST MAKE THIS THEIR # 1 ISSUE!!!’
Jack Smith was appointed in November as special counsel to investigate Trump’s handling of classified information
Documents found at Mar-a-Lago in an August raid are pictured on display
News of the official notification came days after it emerged that a storage room at Mar-a-Lago where surveillance camera footage was flooded.
The flooding happened as a swimming pool was being drained, it emerged on Monday.
Prosecutors wanted the footage to track how White House records were moved around Trump’s Palm Beach residence.
It’s unclear if the room was intentionally flooded or if it was a mistake.
Prosecutors are investigating whether there was any attempt by Trump or his associates to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation after Trump received a subpoena in May 2022 for classified documents.
Trump continues to deny any wrongdoing and claims to be the victim of a politically-charged investigation led by prosecutors who don’t want to see him make another run for president.
Prosecutors have focused on Trump, his body man Walt Nauta and a maintenance worker who helped Nauta move boxes of classified documents ahead of federal agents searching the property last summer in their investigation.
The maintenance worker is the person who drained the pool that led to the flooding of the IT room where the surveillance footage was held, CNN reported.
A Mar-a-Lago employee drained the resort’s swimming pool and flooded a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept
Donald Trump has denied any wrongdoing but took to his Truth Social platform to post a message that seemed to indicate his lawyers had discussed with him the possibility he might be indicted
Under the Presidential Records Act, all documents from a presidential administration are the federal government’s property and go to the National Archives upon the end of a presidency.
Trump, it’s been reported, believed they were his property.
The Justice Department has been investigating potential mishandling of classified material by Trump for about a year.
The attorney general, Merrick Garland, assigned Smith as special counsel on November 18.
But there are signs its investigation may be wrapping up.
A grand jury has been hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses in recent months at the federal courthouse in downtown Washington.
Smith is also investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election – the subject of a similar, ongoing inquiry by prosecutors in Atlanta.
New York prosecutors charged Trump earlier this year with falsifying business records.
