Former President of the United States Donald Trump has been charged with mishandling classified documents after leaving office.
His attorney stated that Mr. Trump faces seven counts, including mishandling classified documents and obstructing efforts to investigate the storage of the files at his Florida residence.
Both are federal offenses punishable by imprisonment if convicted.
Mr. Trump is seeking reelection to the White House in 2024.
According to legal experts, the indictment does not preclude him from competing for president again.
Mr. Trump has been charged with a crime twice before, but now he faces a federal case. Typically, these bear harsher sentences.
He is the first former president to be prosecuted criminally by the government he once led.
Mr. Trump announced in a post on Truth Social on Thursday that he has been summoned to a federal court in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday afternoon, where the allegations against him will be read.
Mr. Trump wrote, “I never imagined that such a thing could happen to a former president of the United States.”
He further stated, “This is indeed a somber day for the United States of America. We are in grave and rapid decline as a nation, but together we will “Make America Great Again!”
The allegations have not yet been made public, but his attorney, Jim Trusty, has provided the details. According to CNN, these violations include conspiracy, false statements, obstruction of justice, and unlawfully retaining classified documents.
Mr. Trump was at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey when the indictment news emerged on Thursday.
On Friday, the US Secret Service will organise Mr. Trump’s Miami court visit.
Prosecutors had also presented evidence in court in Washington, DC. However, the decision to submit the indictment in southern Florida may provide Trump’s legal team with some solace.
The state, where the former Republican president is popular, is likely to produce a jury pool with fewer Democratic leanings than if the case had been prosecuted in the nation’s capital.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November, has been overseeing the investigation into Mr. Trump’s management of classified documents.
Former war crimes investigator Mr. Smith oversees a separate inquiry examining Mr. Trump’s role in the Capitol attack.
Prosecutors claim that after departing the White House, Mr. Trump took approximately 300 classified files to his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.
In August of last year, during a search of the Palm Beach residence, the FBI seized approximately 100 of these documents, some of which were marked top secret.
Last week, it was reported that prosecutors had obtained an audio recording of Mr. Trump admitting that he kept a classified document after he left the White House in January 2021. Friday, transcripts of this recording were widely distributed in U.S. media.
It is illegal for federal officials, including the president, to remove or store classified materials in an unauthorized location.
According to legal authorities, Mr. Trump will still be eligible to run for president.
David Super, a professor at Georgetown University Law Centre, asserts, “He can be indicted as many times as he wants. And it will not affect his ability to run for office.”
Polls indicate that Mr. Trump is currently the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president. He could continue to run even if convicted in the case involving the documents.
On Thursday, as Mr. Trump sent out a fundraising email with the subject line “BREAKING: INDICTED,” several prominent Republicans expressed their support for him.
Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House of Representatives, stated that it was “unconscionable for a president to indict the leading candidate opposing him”.
“House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable,” he tweeted.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Mr. Trump’s adversary for the 2024 nomination, stated. “We have witnessed for years a disparate application of the law based on political affiliation.
“The DeSantis administration will hold the Department of Justice accountable, eliminate political bias, and end weaponization for good.”
In April, Mr. Trump became the first former president to be charged with a crime after pleading not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business documents in connection with a hush-money payment to a porn star.
Next year, he will stand trial in New York for this case.
A prosecutor in Georgia is expected to declare this summer whether Mr. Trump will be charged for alleged efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in that state, thereby increasing his legal risk.
