The Justice Department on Thursday took the legally and politically momentous step of lodging federal criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump, accusing him of mishandling classified documents he kept upon leaving office and then obstructing the government’s efforts to reclaim them.
Mr. Trump confirmed on his social media platform that he had been indicted. The charges against him include willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements, and a conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The Justice Department made no comment and did not immediately make the indictment public.
The indictment, handed up by a grand jury in Federal District Court in Miami, is the first time a former president has faced federal charges. It puts the nation in an extraordinary position, given Mr. Trump’s status not only as a one-time commander-in-chief but also as the current front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination to face President Biden, whose administration will now be seeking to convict his potential rival of multiple felonies.
Mr. Trump is expected to surrender to the authorities on Tuesday, according to a person close to him and his own post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been indicted,” Mr. Trump wrote, in one of several posts around 7 p.m. after he was notified of the charges.
The former president added that he was scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Miami at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
In a video he released later on Truth Social, Mr. Trump declared: “I’m an innocent man. I’m an innocent person.”
The indictment, filed by the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, came about two months after local prosecutors in New York filed more than 30 felony charges against Mr. Trump in a case connected to a hush money payment made to a porn star in advance of the 2016 election.
Mr. Trump remains under investigation by Mr. Smith’s office for his wide-ranging efforts to retain power after his election loss in 2020, and how those efforts led to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. He is also being scrutinized for potential election interference by the district attorney’s office in Fulton County, Ga.
Public filings in the case of the document have painted a picture of Mr. Trump repeatedly stonewalling efforts by both the National Archives and Records Administration and the Justice Department to retrieve the trove of hundreds of sensitive government records that the former president took with him from the White House and kept mostly at his private club and residence in Florida, Mar-a-Lago.
While the nature of a few of the documents found in Mr. Trump’s possession is known — he had held onto letters from the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, for example — it remains unclear what other classified materials were found at Mar-a-Lago and what national security damage his possession of them caused, if any.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly characterized the investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt, and in recent weeks his lawyers have sought to raise what they say are issues of prosecutorial misconduct.
Here’s what else to know:
A senior Biden administration official said the White House learned of the indictment from news reports.
The indictment reaches back to the end of Mr. Trump’s term in January 2021, when the documents — many of which were said to be in the White House residence — were packed in boxes along with clothes, gifts, photos, and other material, and shipped by the General Services Administration to Mar–a-Lago.
After lengthy efforts by the National Archives throughout much of 2021 to get Mr. Trump to turn over the material he had taken with him — considered government property under the Presidential Records Act — Mr. Trump turned over 15 boxes of material in January 2022. The boxes turned out to contain highly sensitive material with classified markings, prompting a Justice Department investigation.
Last August, federal agents descended on Mar-a-Lago to conduct an extraordinary search that turned up material that Mr. Trump had failed to turn over in response to a subpoena months earlier demanding the return of any classified documents still in his possession.
The Justice Department has repeatedly questioned Mr. Trump’s level of cooperation with the efforts to recover the documents, saying that it had recovered more than 100 documents containing classified markings even after an attestation by one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers that a “diligent search” by his legal team had not turned up any further materials.
Mr. Trump still faces other open criminal investigations. They include Mr. Smith’s inquiry into Mr. Trump’s efforts to hold onto power following his election loss — and how they led to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol — and an investigation by a prosecutor in Georgia into his attempts to reverse his 2020 election loss in that vital swing state. Mr. Trump is scheduled to go on trial in the Manhattan criminal case next March.
The former President got out in front of the indictment Thursday evening, announcing it before the Dept. of Justice did. He says the DOJ had informed his legal team he was being indicted ... and Trump's already proclaiming his innocence.
The indictment, handed up by a federal grand jury in Miami, reportedly includes at least 7 counts, but because the DOJ hasn't released it, there are no details yet about the specific charges. ABC is reporting the counts to range from willful retention of national defense information to conspiracy related to a scheme to conceal false statements and representations.
Trump says his initial court appearance to face the charges will be Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Miami. Echoing the thoughts of millions of Americans -- including his supporters and haters -- Trump says he never thought this would happen to a former U.S. President.
Make no mistake, this is historic ... Trump is the first former prez to ever face federal charges.
Remember, the feds say Trump took troves of classified docs to Mar-a-Lago ... where they allegedly sat in unsecured places, including a basement.
The FBI swarmed Mar-a-Lago back in August, seizing 11,000 documents.
The federal indictment comes a little over 2 months after Trump was indicted by a New York grand jury over his alleged involvement in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
Former United States President Donald Trump has alleged on his Truth Social platform that he faces indictment on federal charges that he mishandled classified documents upon exiting the White House.
“I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday,” Trump wrote in the post. “I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States.”
The sealed indictment would represent yet another “first” for the scandal-ridden Republican: Never before has a US president, current or former, faced federal charges.
In April, Trump became the first US president to be criminally indicted, after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced 34 state-level felony charges of falsifying business records in a case pertaining to a hush-money payment to an adult film actress.
“I’m an innocent man,” Trump maintained in a video posted shortly after the announcement on Thursday. “I did nothing wrong.”
Thursday’s announcement came as part of an ongoing US justice department investigation, led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, into the boxes of classified documents recovered at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
News agencies, including the Associated Press and Reuters, have reported that the ex-president faces seven counts related to the investigation. The specific charges will become public once the indictment is unsealed.
“Our country is going to hell. And they come after Donald Trump, weaponizing the justice department, weaponizing the FBI,” Trump said in the video, claiming the indictment is intended to derail his 2024 candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. “It’s called election interference. They’re trying to destroy a reputation so they can win an election.”
In the wake of an August search of Mar-a-Lago, several other high-profile politicians – including current US President Joe Biden and Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence – stepped forward as well to turn over classified documents held at their residences.
But many experts have indicated that Trump’s case is different. Initially, as Trump prepared to leave office in January 2022, the National Archives collected 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago, some of which contained classified information.
There were still more records there, though. The FBI had to issue a subpoena in May of that year for classified documents that remained in the former president’s possession.
And when FBI investigators came to believe there were even more documents at Mar-a-Lago – despite a signed statement from Trump’s legal team alleging otherwise – a search warrant in August was issued for the property. It resulted in the recovery of approximately 100 additional documents with classified markings, bringing the total up to 300.
Also notable was the volume of records recovered: A total of 33 boxes, containing nearly 11,000 records, were removed from Mar-a-Lago.
Experts have warned that Trump could face obstruction charges for his conduct in the investigation. An FBI affidavit, dated August, describes a criminal investigation into the “improper removal and storage of classified information in unauthorized spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records”.
As Al Jazeera correspondent Shihab Rattansi explained, early speculation indicates that Trump could face charges related to conspiracy to obstruct, making false statements, and the willful retention of documents.
“This might be a charge under the Espionage Act,” he explained. “The Espionage Act doesn’t necessarily mean espionage. It can just mean mishandling documents that you shouldn’t have.”
But, Rattansi warned, even Trump’s own lawyers do not have the specifics.
“They don’t have the charges either. They don’t have the indictment. What they received was a summons to appear in court in Miami next Tuesday. And from the language contained in that documentation and some other communications, perhaps, they’ve gleaned what the charges may be,” Rattansi explained.
“The indictment may not be unsealed until that court date on Tuesday. We just don’t know.”
In his social media posts on Thursday, Trump lashed out at Biden, who defeated him in his 2020 campaign for reelection.
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump wrote, referring to the 15 removed boxes. He accused Biden of hypocrisy, claiming – without evidence – that the current president had “documents strewn all over his garage floor” when officials searched his Delaware residence.
The indictment represents perhaps the greatest legal hurdle Trump has faced since leaving office. In addition to the 34 felony charges he faces in New York, the former president was found liable for defamation and sexual assault last month in a civil suit brought by writer E Jean Carroll, who was awarded $5m in damages.
Trump also faces probes into whether he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election – one in the southern state of Georgia and another at the federal level, also led by Special Counsel Smith.
The Republican leader has repeatedly described that election as “rigged”, and a group of his supporters attempted to disrupt the tally of the Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021, storming the US Capitol and forcing legislators to flee.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, named Smith as special counsel for the two-part Trump investigation in November. Garland also tapped lawyer Robert Hur in January to serve as a special counsel in a review of Biden’s handling of classified documents.
But the legal stakes are likely to be different for Trump and Biden. In the latter’s case, lawyers contacted the National Archives upon discovering approximately 10 classified documents related to Biden’s time as vice president, under Barack Obama.
That discovery – at a Washington, DC, think tank in November – led to the recovery of a second batch of documents at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home. Biden’s lawyers quickly turned over what they described as a “small number” of documents and authorized a search of the home, which took place over 13 hours and turned up six more records.
There was no evidence Biden was aware of the documents, nor that he attempted to conceal them – two questions that linger over Trump’s case.
Likewise, in Pence’s case, his lawyers proactively reported a “small number” of classified documents in the former vice president’s Indiana home, and a subsequent FBI search turned up one additional classified record. On June 2, the justice department announced it had ended its investigation into Pence’s handling of the documents without filing any charges.
All three men – Trump, Pence, and Biden – have announced their candidacy for the 2024 presidential race.
Trump remains the frontrunner on the Republican side, setting him up for a potential rematch against the Democratic Biden. In the immediate aftermath of Trump’s social media posts on Thursday, at least one of Trump’s Republican presidential rivals, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, commented on indictment news, urging caution.
“We don’t get our news from Trump’s Truth Social account. Let’s see what the facts are when any possible indictment is released,” Christie, a prominent Trump critic, wrote on Twitter.
He added: “No one is above the law, no matter how much they wish they were. We will have more to say when the facts are revealed.”
Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, largely rallied around the former president, denouncing what they considered a politically motivated attack.
“Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America,” Kevin McCarthy, speaker of the House of Representatives, posted on Twitter.
“I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”
Bruce Fein, an associate deputy attorney general under former Republican President Ronald Reagan, told Al Jazeera that the federal charges are the first of their kind against a US president – but just barely.
“Richard Nixon was about ready to be indicted by [special prosecutor] Leon Jaworski for obstruction of justice, perjury,” Fein said, referencing the former Republican president implicated in the 1970s Watergate scandal.
“He was pardoned by Gerald Ford,” Fein continued. “So he was on the verge of indictment, but the pardon saved him.”
What stands out in the Trump case, Fein argued, is the “outrageous way” the former president has conducted himself before, during, and after his single term in office. Fein pointed to statements Pence made this week, alleging that Trump presented him with a choice on the day of the Capitol attack: “that I choose between him and the Constitution”.
“No other president in the history of the United States, in over 230 years, had ever asked a vice president to trash the 12th Amendment,” Fein said, referencing a part of the US Constitution that governs presidential elections. “So yeah, this is unprecedented because the wrongdoing is unprecedented.”
Fein also dismissed Trump’s assertion that the latest charges were part of a greater “witch hunt” against his political career: “What else is new? That’s all he’s got to say. You’ll notice he doesn’t come forth with any exculpatory evidence that shows that he’s innocent. He just starts screaming and yelling.”
“This is just the same playbook,” Fein added. “I think his base is dwindling. I think Republicans are going to be split, especially that other presidential aspirants, even Ron DeSantis, may turn against Trump.”
Trump has said he is expected in federal court in Miami, Florida, at 3pm US Eastern Time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday.
Top Republicans and conservatives from around the country were outraged on Thursday in response to the news that former President Donald Trump had been indicted.
A federal grand jury in Florida reportedly indicted the former president on seven charges in the criminal investigation into his handling of classified material after leaving office. While no one has seen the charges, reports indicated that they range from willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements.
“The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society,” DeSantis, who is also running for president, said in a statement. “We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation.”
“Why so zealous in pursuing Trump yet so passive about Hillary or Hunter?” he continued. “The DeSantis administration will bring accountability to the DOJ, excise political bias, and end weaponization once and for all.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said that it was a “dark day for the United States of America” and added that House Republicans would “hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”
Conservative radio host Buck Sexton wrote: “This isn’t even the last of the criminal indictments Trump will face. They’re going to try to bury him in prosecutions. They see no point in holding back now. Declaration of all out lawfare.”
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) responded: “Indicting Donald Trump is the culmination of what Merrick Garland has been pushing for since he became Attorney General. The weaponization of our Department of Justice against enemies of the Biden administration] will do enormous damage to the rule of law & have a lasting impact.”
Twitter owner Elon Musk responded, “There does seem to be a far higher interest in pursuing Trump compared to other people in politics.”
“Very important that the justice system rebut what appears to be differential enforcement or they will lose public trust,” Musk continued.
BREAKING — Donald Trump says that his attorneys have been informed that he has been indicted in the classified documents investigation. pic.twitter.com/skWh7SkQmX
— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) June 8, 2023