WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has become the first former US President to be indicted for a federal crime after he himself gave out this information on his Truth Social platform.
Trump said prosecutors had notified his attorneys of indictment on seven criminal counts related to his treatment of sensitive government material that he took with him when he left the White House in January 2021, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The charges are expected to be unveiled on Tuesday in a federal court in Miami. His lawyer, Jim Trusty, told the media that the charges include conspiracy, false statements, obstruction of justice, and illegally retaining classified documents under the Espionage Act. Investigators had seized a cache of 13,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, nearly a year ago. Of those, 100 were marked as classified.
“I am an innocent man!” Trump wrote in all caps on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, after announcing that he had been indicted. It is the second criminal case for Trump and the first federal case against him. He is due to go on trial in New York next March in a state case stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star.
Trump is the first current or former President to face criminal charges.