On Thursday, Donald Trump is accused of handling classified documents at his Florida residence. This sparked a federal investigation, which is likely the most dangerous of several legal threats the former president is facing as he tries to retake the White House.
The indictment was not immediately officially confirmed by the Justice Department. However, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who were not permitted to speak publicly, the indictment contained seven criminal counts. One of them claimed that just before Trump revealed on his Truth Social platform that he had been indicted, prosecutors contacted his attorneys.
The Justice Department is now embroiled in the most divisive case it has ever faced thanks to the indictment. The Republican presidential primary that Donald Trump is currently leading in could be upset by its first case against a former president, and any felony charges would increase the likelihood of a lengthy jail term.
Trump claimed he was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday afternoon. Within 20 minutes of his statement, he started raising money for his 2024 presidential run. In a video, he proclaimed, “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!” and repeated his catchphrase that the inquiry is a “witch hunt.”
Trump is now in even more legal danger as a result of the case. He has already been charged in New York and is already the subject of other investigations in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Trump’s claims of broad presidential authority will be contrasted with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s oft-repeated maxim that no one, not even a previous commander in chief, should be seen to be above the law as the case proceeds.
The indictment results from a months-long investigation by special counsel Jack Smith into whether Trump broke the law by keeping hundreds of documents with the designation “classified” at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach and whether Trump took actions to thwart the government’s efforts to retrieve the records.
Prosecutors have said that Trump took roughly 300 classified documents to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House, including some 100 that were seized by the FBI last August in a search of the home that underscored the gravity of the Justice Department’s investigation.
The special counsel inquiry has always been viewed by Trump and his administration as being far riskier than the New York case, both politically and legally. Since Trump’s attorneys were informed that he was the subject of the investigation, campaign staffers had been preparing for the consequences, anticipating that it was only a matter of time until charges were filed.
What the short- and long-term political repercussions for Trump will be, however, is still unknown. Trump’s popularity didn’t suffer from his first indictment, which sparked millions of dollars in donations from furious fans. No matter what, the indictment and the subsequent court battle will bring Trump back into the spotlight, distracting voters from the other contenders who are attempting to gain traction
The special counsel inquiry has always been viewed by Trump and his administration as being far riskier than the New York case, both politically and legally. Since Trump’s attorneys were informed that he was the subject of the investigation, campaign staffers had been preparing for the consequences, anticipating that it was only a matter of time until charges were filed.
What the short- and long-term political repercussions for Trump will be, however, is still unknown. Trump’s popularity didn’t suffer from his first indictment, which sparked millions of dollars in donations from furious fans. No matter what, the indictment and the subsequent court battle will bring Trump back into the spotlight, distracting voters from the other contenders who are attempting to gain traction
The special counsel inquiry has always been viewed by Trump and his administration as being far riskier than the New York case, both politically and legally. Since Trump’s attorneys were informed that he was the subject of the investigation, campaign staffers had been preparing for the consequences, anticipating that it was only a matter of time until charges were filed.
What the short- and long-term political repercussions for Trump will be, however, is still unknown. Trump’s popularity didn’t suffer from his first indictment, which sparked millions of dollars in donations from furious fans. No matter what, the indictment and the subsequent court battle will bring Trump back into the spotlight, distracting voters from the other contenders who are attempting to gain traction in the 2024 presidential race.
When he left the White House, Trump insisted that he had the right to keep the secret documents and claimed—without providing any supporting documentation—that he had declassified them.
The investigation into Trump, both as president and a private man, spanned years, but the Justice Department had never before charged him with a crime. President Joe Biden, who is running for reelection in 2024, appointed Garland.
The former president has long tried to take advantage of the accumulating legal issues for political gain, alleging on social media and in public that Democratic prosecutors are bringing the cases in an effort to harm his 2024 reelection campaign. He is certain to use that strategy once more, reinstating his long-standing allegations that the Justice Department, which during his administration looked into possible Russian collusion during his 2016 campaign, is being used against him.
Legal professionals, including Trump’s own former attorney general, had long viewed the Mar-a-Lago investigation as one of the several state and federal probes that Trump is facing and the one where the evidence seemed to favour the government. Federal investigators concluded they had probable cause that several crimes had been committed, including the retention of material related to national defence, the destruction of government data, and the obstruction of an investigation, according to court records that were made public last year.
Since then, the Justice Department has amassed additional evidence and secured grand jury testimony from people close to Trump, including his own lawyers. The statutes governing the handling of classified records and obstruction are felonies that could carry years in prison in the event of a conviction.
Signs had mounted for weeks that an indictment was near, including a June 5 meeting between Trump’s lawyers and Justice Department officials. After that meeting, Trump said on social media that he anticipated he could be charged, even as he insisted that he had done nothing wrong.
It was recently discovered that prosecutors were presenting evidence before a different panel in Florida, where many of the alleged acts of obstruction scrutinised by prosecutors — including attempts to move the boxes — are alleged to have occurred. The majority of the investigation had been handled in Washington, with a grand jury meeting there for months.
Trump’s legal issues go beyond the New York indictment and the case involving the sensitive documents.
The special counsel is conducting a separate investigation into Trump and his associates’ attempts to rig the results of the 2020 presidential election. Additionally, the Fulton County district attorney in Georgia is looking into Trump for alleged attempts to rig the state’s 2020 election.
The secret documents at Mar-a-Lago were transported from the White House to the resort in Florida when Trump left office in January 2021, along with hundreds of other unclassified government documents.
Trump and his attorneys, according to the Justice Department, fought attempts by the National Archives and Records Administration to recover the records on numerous occasions. Trump’s representatives finally returned 15 boxes of records in January 2022 after exchanging them for months, including 184 documents that, according to officials, had classified marks on them.
In May 2022, a subpoena was issued by FBI and Justice Department investigators for any secret records that Trump still had. However, after a Trump attorney produced three dozen records and claimed that a thorough search of the property had been conducted, authorities began to fear that many more documents might still be present. They were able to see on CCTV camera boxes of documents being removed from a Mar-a-Lago storage area.
The probe had been simmering for months before making astonishing front-page news late August. At that time, FBI investigators executed a search order at Mar-a-Lago and seized 33 boxes containing classified information, including top-secret data concealed in a desk drawer and storage area and mixed in with personal items. According to the Justice Department, certain records were so sensitive that investigators needed higher security clearances to review them.
The finding of documents with classified markings at the Delaware house and former Washington office of President Joe Biden, as well as in the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence, had given the probe into Trump the appearance of being complicated — politically, if not legally. Pence was just advised by the Justice Department that he would not be prosecuted, but Biden’s handling of confidential documents is still under investigation by a second special counsel.
However, there are significant contrasts between Biden and Pence’s handling of documents and Trump’s, including the fact that both men’s representatives claim the records were returned as soon as they were discovered.
In contrast, the focus of the investigation immediately shifted to whether Trump, who for four years as president showed contempt for the FBI and Justice Department, had attempted to obstruct the investigation by withholding some materials. The emphasis on obstruction brought to mind the special counsel inquiry Trump endured while he was president, in which prosecutors looked into whether Trump had improperly attempted to impede the Russia investigation, notably by dismissing his FBI director.
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