Donald Trump is writing another page in American legal history by becoming the first former president to be indicted at the federal level, this time in connection with secret documents he allegedly kept at his lavish estate after his term in office.
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“It’s beyond remarkable, it’s unique, it’s unique in American history,” comments Rafael Jacob, associate researcher at the Raoul Dandurand Chair at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM).
The former Republican president announced Thursday night on his social network Truth Social that he has been indicted by the federal judiciary.
“The corrupt Biden administration has notified my attorneys that I have been charged, presumably in the phony boxing case,” the Republican billionaire wrote.
He said he was summoned to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.
His charges were corroborated by US media, including CNN and the New York Times.
A first
The ex-president has faced seven cases involving the safekeeping of entire boxes of documents, including some classified as “top secret”, after he left Washington in 2021. He allegedly refused to return them, which violates federal law.
This is the first time in US history that a former president has faced federal indictment.
However, Rafael Jacob recalls that this is the second time the former White House tenant has been criminally charged.
In March, a grand jury in a New York court formally indicted him in a 2016 case for buying a porn actress’ silence.
“What is remarkable is that we are still waiting for decisions that are far more serious in the matter, starting with those in Georgia and the riot on Capitol Hill,” the expert said in a telephone interview.
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However, Donald Trump continues to present himself as a victim of “political persecution”.
“I never thought that something like this could happen to a former President of the United States,” he castigated on Thursday, denouncing “a dark day” for the country.
However, he is still well ahead in the polls in the race for the Republican nomination.
Ironically, this new indictment could give him an advantage over his opponents, similar to what happened after the New York indictments in March, Mr Jacob said.
“It will shake up a large segment of the American electorate. It’s about rallying a Republican electorate behind the leader of the clan, the leader of the tribe, in a very tribal way,” he explains.
– With AFP