Former US President Donald Trump, who left the White House in January 2021, has been raging against the Biden Administration after being indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s road to the 2024 presidential election remains full of hurdles, and he has called the latest indictment “election interference” and “the greatest witch hunt of all time”.
Trump was recently found guilty in a major sexual abuse case, and before that was indicted for falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments. In the current case, he reportedly faces a seven-count indictment, filed in the federal court; he could spend years in jail if found guilty. Trump will appear in the federal court in Miami, Florida, for an arraignment on Tuesday, at 3 pm.
The charges include wilful retention of national defence secrets; and obstruction of justice and conspiracy. To put it simply, Trump took home documents of national importance that he was not allowed to bring with him after being defeated by Joe Biden, and he refused to give them back.
The current indictment is the most serious legal action against the former president. According to news agencies, the Department of Justice (DoJ) did not publicly confirm the indictment, but Trump revealed it yesterday.
An Associated Press explainer said that “two people familiar with the situation who were not authorised to discuss it publicly said that the indictment included seven criminal counts”.
This is the first time in the history of the United States of America that the DoJ has filed a case of this nature against a former president. It is not yet clear what impact this legal action will have on the Trump campaign.
According to the details available so far, Trump not only took about 300 classified documents from the White House to his Florida estate, but he also obstructed the Biden Administration’s efforts to recover those documents. About 100 of those documents were seized from Trump’s home last year by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Since Trump was aware that he had classified documents in his possession after he was out of the White House, he faces the wilful retention charge, which is a violation of Espionage Act provisions. However, he does not seem to have been charged with actual spying.
Always speaking his mind on social media, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States.
“I AM AN INNOCENT MAN! This is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America.”