Taking to his own Truth Social platform Thursday night, former president and current candidate Donald Trump says he has been informed a Miami grand jury has handed down indictments against him.
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he has been indicted on charges of illegally storing classified documents at his residence in Palm Beach after removing them from the White House and that he must make his first appearance in Miami federal court on Tuesday. Trump, 76, who made the announcement on his social media platform, condemned the Justice Department and Biden Administration for bringing the charges against him. The indictment, returned by a Miami federal grand jury, has not been unsealed.
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump posted on Truth Social. TOP VIDEOS News of Trump’s indictment capped days of increasing speculation on social media about whether special counsel Jack Smith would move to file such unprecedented charges against a former president. According to multiple news reports, Smith’s team had been interviewing witnesses and reviewing evidence through two separate grand juries, one impaneled for months in the nation’s capital and another more recently in Miami.
The indictment, which is likely to charge the former president with illegally possessing classified records, violating the Espionage Act and obstructing justice, was returned by grand jurors sitting in Miami. The historic indictment is sure to be a politically controversial and intensely covered prosecution in a federal courtroom not far from Trump’s palatial home.
In the days leading up the indictment, his lawyers had met with prosecutors and Trump had taken to his own social media network to repeat claims that he has been treated unfairly by federal investigators. The case, however, stems from a drawn-out dispute over accusations that the former president had mishandled classified records. Months after his departure, Trump engaged in a confrontation with the National Archives and then the FBI over releasing the classified documents — including material about a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities and military defenses — leading to his arrest on charges of possessing the top secret papers at his private club and estate and withholding them from investigators.
Trump is expected to surrender to authorities for his first appearance in Miami federal court on Tuesday, when issues of his legal representation, bond and arraignment would be addressed before Magistrate Bruce Reinhart. He is the same judge who found probable cause of a crime authorizing the FBI to search Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022.
I suspect, since the Jack Smith investigation has been a very tight ship, now that the Miami grand jury has acted we will start seeing leaks of information between now and Tuesday as folks involved get their first look at the materials. And of course, waiting to read the indictment itself.Report
“A republic, if you can keep it.”
Trump, and his supporters, have been a test of whether the experiment in self-governance and republican democracy will succeed or fail.
Unfortunately, the results so far are…mixed.Report
We haven’t had a real republic in a very long time…..it didn’t start with with Trump.Report
When was the coronation?Report
Long term, tests are good. They indicate fail points.Report
It appears one of his aides has been indicted as well.Report
DoJ has unsealed the indictment:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/09/politics/read-trump-indictment-document/index.htmlReport