Donald Trump says he’s been indicted for mishandling classified documents, becoming the first former US president to ever face a federal charge.
Trump made the claim in a post to the social media platform Truth Social on Friday morning, Australian time.
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump’s statement began.
“I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3PM.”
“I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!” he added.
Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment made by Reuters.
A representative for Special Counsel Jack Smith, the Justice Department official who is handling the investigation, declined to comment.
Trump faces seven criminal counts in the federal case, a source told Reuters.
The indictment remains under seal, and even Trump himself has not yet seen what it says.
According to The New York Times, Trump would be the first former president in US history to face federal charges.
It comes just two months after Trump was charged by the Manhattan district attorney’s office over alleged illegal hush payments to a porn actress and a model. He pleaded not guilty to 34 charges in that matter.
He’s also facing several other probes, including one in Washington looking into his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and an investigation in Georgia over whether he and his allies interfered in that state’s 2020 election.
The new federal charges concern allegations Trump mishandled classified documents after leaving office by keeping and storing them at his Palm Beach property Mar-a-Lago.
Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith has also been investigating whether Trump tried to obstruct the government’s efforts to find the records, the Associated Press reported.
Investigators seized roughly 13,000 documents from Mar-a-Lago almost a year ago.
One hundred were marked as classified, even though one of Trump’s lawyers had previously said all records with classified markings had been returned to the government.
Trump has previously defended his retention of documents, suggesting he declassified them while president.
However, Trump has not provided evidence of this and his lawyers have declined to make that argument in court filings.
President from 2017 to 2021, Trump is the front-runner in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Through the years Trump has shown an uncanny ability to weather controversies that might torpedo other politicians.
He describes himself as the victim of a politically motivated witch hunt and accuses the Justice Department of partisan bias.
Trump’s lead has grown over his rivals in the Republican nominating contest since he was indicted in the New York case, polling shows.
With additional reporting from AAP.
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