Former President Donald Trump has been indicted in federal court in Miami in connection with classified government documents he retained after leaving the White House..Trump broke the news Thursday evening on his Truth Social media site, saying he has been summoned to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday..“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, DC, 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..“I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM. We are a Country in serious and rapid Decline, but together we will Make America Great Again!” (capital letters sic.).Trump has been the focus of a federal criminal investigation since last year over his stonewalling of requests to return government records, including classified documents, after ending his term as president. By law, such records must be returned when a president leaves office, reports CNBC..“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,” Trump wrote, adding “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN! And “This is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America,” he wrote, (caps sic)..Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was raided last August by FBI agents searching for records they believed would be locatedthere, with CNBC reporting, “Agents found hundreds of documents marked classified.” .“We’re learning from our sources that there appears to be at least seven counts here. This ranges from everything from the willful retention of national defense information to conspiracy to a scheme to conceal to false statements and representations," ABC News' Katherine Faulders reported on during a special report on the network..The unprecedented federal indictment of a former president -- who already faces a criminal case in New York City that he denies and who is the current front-runner for the Republican Party's nomination for the White House in 2024 -- sets in motion what is potentially the most consequential prosecution in U.S. history, with implications both global and domestic, says ABC, adding, “experts say that a current U.S. government criminally prosecuting its former leader and current leading opposition party candidate upends long-held norms and could test the nation's democratic system in a manner that stretches far beyond the merits of the case itself.”.Central to Smith's efforts in the classified documents probe is determining whether lawyers who represented the former president falsely certified in response to a grand jury subpoena that Trump had returned all classified records to the government, or whether Trump himself sought to conceal records that he might have unlawfully retained, reports ABC..In the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, federal investigators seized more than 100 documents with classified markings during the search, according to an unsealed detailed inventory list. From Trump‘s office alone, there were 43 empty folders seized with classified banners, says ABC.
Former President Donald Trump has been indicted in federal court in Miami in connection with classified government documents he retained after leaving the White House..Trump broke the news Thursday evening on his Truth Social media site, saying he has been summoned to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday..“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, DC, 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..“I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM. We are a Country in serious and rapid Decline, but together we will Make America Great Again!” (capital letters sic.).Trump has been the focus of a federal criminal investigation since last year over his stonewalling of requests to return government records, including classified documents, after ending his term as president. By law, such records must be returned when a president leaves office, reports CNBC..“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,” Trump wrote, adding “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN! And “This is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America,” he wrote, (caps sic)..Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was raided last August by FBI agents searching for records they believed would be locatedthere, with CNBC reporting, “Agents found hundreds of documents marked classified.” .“We’re learning from our sources that there appears to be at least seven counts here. This ranges from everything from the willful retention of national defense information to conspiracy to a scheme to conceal to false statements and representations," ABC News' Katherine Faulders reported on during a special report on the network..The unprecedented federal indictment of a former president -- who already faces a criminal case in New York City that he denies and who is the current front-runner for the Republican Party's nomination for the White House in 2024 -- sets in motion what is potentially the most consequential prosecution in U.S. history, with implications both global and domestic, says ABC, adding, “experts say that a current U.S. government criminally prosecuting its former leader and current leading opposition party candidate upends long-held norms and could test the nation's democratic system in a manner that stretches far beyond the merits of the case itself.”.Central to Smith's efforts in the classified documents probe is determining whether lawyers who represented the former president falsely certified in response to a grand jury subpoena that Trump had returned all classified records to the government, or whether Trump himself sought to conceal records that he might have unlawfully retained, reports ABC..In the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, federal investigators seized more than 100 documents with classified markings during the search, according to an unsealed detailed inventory list. From Trump‘s office alone, there were 43 empty folders seized with classified banners, says ABC.