Trump claims he faces indictment in classified document case | Donald Trump News
The former US President has asserted on his Truth Social platform that he is being summoned to appear in federal court.
Former United States President Donald Trump has alleged on his Truth Social platform that he faces indictment on 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,” he wrote in the post. “I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States.”
Trump has been subject to an ongoing Justice Department investigation, led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, into the boxes of classified documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The Associated Press reported that the ex-president faces seven counts related to the investigation.
Several other high-profile politicians — including current US President Joe Biden and Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence — have since stepped forward through their lawyers to turn over documents recovered at their residences.
But many experts have indicated that Trump’s case was different: The Federal Bureau of Investigation had to issue a subpoena for classified documents that remained the former president’s possession after his departure from the White House.
And when FBI investigators came to believe there were still more documents at Mar-a-Lago, a search warrant was issued for the property, resulting in the recovery of approximately 100 documents with classified markings.
Experts have warned that Trump could face obstruction charges for his conduct in the investigation. An FBI affidavit, dated August 2022, 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”.
And then there was the volume of records recovered: A total of 15 boxes of records were removed from Mar-a-Lago, according to the affidavit.
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 that the current president had “documents strewn all over his garage floor” when officials searched his Delaware residence.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
