Former President Donald Trump says he has been indicted on charges related to the mishandling of classified documents. He announced the news Thursday via statement and his social network, saying that he “never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States.”
The Justice Department has not yet confirmed an indictment, though media reports from the New York Times and elsewhere have sources on background confirming the news. Trump is currently campaigning for reelection as a Republican presidential hopeful in 2024.
If Trump’s claims, which were also shared to his Truth Social page, are true, the federal grand jury’s decision would mark the former president’s second indictment this year. In April, he became the first former president to ever be criminally indicted at the federal level by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The Florida indictment stems from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s taking of hundreds of classified documents from the White House in 2021. He stored those documents, many of which were categorized as “top secret,” in his Mar-a-Lago estate, an action that led to the Florida home being raided by the FBI in August of last year. The charges are, per media reports, concerning the willful retention of national security material, obstruction and conspiracy. Attorney John Rowley told NBC News that Trump has been indicted on seven counts.
The silver bullet in Smith’s ongoing investigation seemed to come earlier this month, when CNN exclusively reported on a bombshell recording of Trump in which he discussed the classified documents he’d taken to Mar-a-Lago, specifically one concerning a potential attack on Iran. Per CNN, the “recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House,” and he acknowledged the “limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records,” both of which contradict previous arguments the former president had made in his defense after the FBI’s raid.
“I am an innocent man!” Trump said Thursday, concluding his statement. “This is a dark day for the United States of America. We are a country in serious and rapid decline, but together we will make America great again!”
Read the former president’s full statement below:
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, D.C., 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.
I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM. 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. I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!
This is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America. We are a Country in serious and rapid Decline, but together we will Make America Great Again!
