Trump Indicted on Seven Charges in Classified Docs Probe
Donald Trump been indicted on criminal charges for the second time in less than four months, this time over his handling of classified documents from his time in the White House. The case — adding to the GOP frontrunner’s legal woes in New York and elsewhere — takes the nation further into uncharted territory, as the former president is now simultaneously campaigning to take control of the federal justice system while simultaneously facing charges from it.
The former president announced on Truth Social that “the corrupt Biden Administration” had informed his lawyers that he’s been indicted “seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump’s pet name for the federal investigation into his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
Rolling Stone confirmed the news shortly after Trump’s post. The Justice Department’s indictment includes seven charges related to possession of documents, obstruction, and false statements, a source with knowledge tells Rolling Stone.
Trump wrote that he will appear in court next week: “I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM.
Two people with knowledge of the matter told Rolling Stone that Trump’s lawyers and close allies were on high alert Thursday morning, roughly 12 hours before it was publicly announced that Trump had been indicted in the documents probe. Media surrogates and other higher-profile defenders of Trump were instructed to be on standby, in the event the former president was in fact indicted by the feds Thursday.
Talking points were drafted early. The requisite campaign fundraising appeals were discussed quietly. And some members of Trump’s inner circle spent the day trying to figure out if the chatter of a Thursday indictment were even based in reality, or a rerun of the time earlier this year when Trump announced he’d be arrested on the wrong date.
However, by the evening, the Trumpland rumor mill was vindicated this time. Trump was not happy.
“I AM AN INNOCENT MAN,” Trump wrote after his initial announcement, along with a video message. “THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS TOTALLY CORRUPT. THIS IS ELECTION INTERFERENCE & A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Trump became the first former president to be indicted in April when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged him with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. He’s now the first to be indicted on federal charges, too, and more could be coming. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the classified document charges, is still investigating Trump’s role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. He’s also under investigation in Georgia for meddling with the state’s election results.
Trump has been complaining incessantly about the investigations, alleging they are part of a vast conspiracy to prevent him from retaking the White House. The former president’s rantings on Truth Social became increasingly paranoid this week ahead of the indictment on Thursday. “Wow, this is turning out to be the greatest & most vicious instance of ELECTION INTERFERENCE in the history of our Country,” he wrote Wednesday in a typical post.
Trump’s legal team met with Smith earlier in the week in a last-ditch effort to avoid charges. Rolling Stone confirmed on Wednesday, however, that Trump had been notified he was the target of an ongoing criminal probe, the latest in a string of signals that charges were imminent. Rolling Stone reported last month that Trump’s lawyers had been preparing him to be brought up on federal charges related to the documents investigation.
In August, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Authorities seized hundreds of classified documents — some of them highly sensitive and pertaining to national security — that Trump took on his way out of the White House. The raid was the culmination of a months-long effort by the National Archives and federal authorities to recover the missing materials, one that included a DOJ subpoena for materials.
Trump has maintained he did nothing wrong, claiming that he declassified all of the material — even suggesting he did so just by thinking about it. The DOJ isn’t convinced, and neither was Trump, apparently. CNN reported last week that investigators obtained a tape of Trump admitting he took a classified document detailing an attack plan on Iran while acknowledging he was aware he couldn’t simply declassify it. Trump dismissed the recording during a Fox News town hall event with Sean Hannity. “All I know is this: everything I did was right,” he said.
It’s unclear how the indictment will impact the race for the Republican nomination. The indictment in New York helped Trump in the polls, and he started fundraising off the latest charges almost immediately after he announced them on Thursday. The fact that most of the Republicans competing against Trump for the nomination — including former Vice President Mike Pence — have defended him against the investigations can only help his cause.
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