Former President Donald Trump says that he has has been indicted in the classified documents case. The Justice Department has not yet confirmed what Trump said.
Trump said on his internet site Truth Social that he has been ordered to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday. There had been reports in recent days that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s possession of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort was being heard by a grand jury in Florida in addition to a grand jury in Washington, D.C.
This is the second indictment of Trump. He previously was indicted by a grand jury in Manhattan in District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into the hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump appeared in court in Manhattan and entered “not guilty” pleas on all 34 counts in the indictment.
This is the first time in the history of the U.S. that a president or former president has faced federal charges.
The indictment is expected to remain sealed until Trump appears in court on Tuesday. The New York Times reported that a person familiar with the case said there are seven counts in the indictment.
Trump was found to have numerous classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and defied government efforts to retrieve them. At various points he or his attorneys had represented that all government documents has been returned while it was subsequently discovered that they had not been given back to the government.
Trump has periodically claimed that he had declassified the documents and could do so merely by thinking about declassifying them. Documents provided to the special counsel set by the National Archives and Records Administration revealed that Trump or his representatives had been informed more than a dozen times about the proper procedures for declassified documents, none of which included “thinking about it.”
This story is developing. More details as they become available.
