Former President of the United States, Donald Trump has alleged that he is now facing a fresh indictment on federal charges that he mishandled classified documents upon exiting the White House.
The controversial former President made this known on his Truth Social platform on Friday morning.
‘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’ he added.
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.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that 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.’
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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, weaponising the justice department, weaponising 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.