Former US President Donald Trump faces multiple federal crimes for handling classified documents that he illegally brought to Mar-A-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida mansion, and kept there despite service requirements. Justice Department-appointed Special Attorney Jack Smith has made the historic move after completing his investigation and after a grand jury in Miami, Fla., approved the indictment.
Trump himself announced it on his social network. “My attorneys have been informed by the corrupt Biden administration that I have been charged, apparently with counterfeiting the boxes, even though Joe Biden has 1850 boxes at the University of Delaware, more boxes in Chinatown, DC, and even more.” boxes at the University of Pennsylvania and documents strewn all over the floor of his garage where he parks his Corvette and that he’s only “safe” with a garage door that’s paper thin and stays open most of the time.” he said posted in your social network.
“I have been subpoenaed to appear in Miami Federal Court at 3:00 p.m. Tuesday. “I never would have believed that something like this could happen to a former President of the United States,” he wrote in another message. “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!” he added. “This is truly a DARK DAY for the United States of America. We are a serious and rapidly declining country, but together we will make America great again! At the same time, the Trump campaign has started sending out emails asking for donations, using the accusation as a pretext.
The Justice Department has not yet released the allegations against Trump. US media has announced that there are seven charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and willful withholding of national security documents.
Trump already made history when he was indicted in the 2016 presidential campaign on 34 falsehood charges stemming from three payments made to cover up scandals (one of which was an extramarital affair with porn actress Stormy Daniels). A New York judge has scheduled the next March 25 to hear the case.
This is again the first time federal impeachment has been brought against a president or former president. In addition, they are related to the exercise of their office. Additionally, his accusation comes as he is the favorite for the nomination in the Republican primary for the 2024 presidential election. This is how the Biden administration’s Justice Department is prosecuting who turns out to be a possible rival to the current president in next November’s election.
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Trump has been preparing for a possible impeachment in recent days. Prosecutors had officially told his lawyers that he was the target of the investigation, and he himself responded Wednesday by saying he had done nothing wrong and that the allegations were a form of “election interference,” prompting him to return to the White House would and so on. Everything would be resolved. It was a “witch hunt”.
Trump received the news at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he has been staying for the past few days.
The former president’s allegation is a qualitative leap in a case that led to the search of his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Fla. From the contents of the search warrant, it was already apparent at the time that the former president was being investigated for possible crimes of obstruction of justice, concealment, removal or intentional mutilation of public documents, as well as violations of the Espionage Act, apparently because of the intentional retention of security documents. national security. These are criminal offenses that can be punished with fines or imprisonment.
FBI agents searching Trump’s mansion found thousands of documents the former president illegally kept there, including hundreds classified with varying degrees of classification. The former President had failed to meet the requirements for their surrender, which justified the search.
More information about the investigation has emerged in recent weeks. The Washington Post revealed that just a day before the Justice Department visited the former president’s residence, two Trump associates transported boxes of paper to Mar-a-Lago with requests to pick up classified documents the special prosecutor had found along with other evidence collected can support the criminal prosecution of obstruction of justice.
Federal prosecutors also received a recording of a meeting in the summer of 2021 at which former President Donald Trump admitted to holding a secret Pentagon document about a possible attack on Iran, according to a report published by CNN. The recording is incriminating evidence against Donald Trump, who has at times claimed that he released all of the documents the Federal Investigation Agency (FBI) found during a search of his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Fla have.
One of Trump’s usual tactics is to delay and hamper investigations through continued court appeals. Thanks to one of these sources, a Florida federal judge, Aileen M. Cannon, who was appointed by Trump himself shortly before his dismissal, ordered the Justice Department and the FBI to stop their investigative work with all the documents found in the registry, after which a special expert reviewed them.
The aim was to determine whether they compromised attorney-client privilege (which protects professional secrecy in an individual’s relationships with his or her attorneys) or executive privilege (allowing executive power to withhold information about ongoing proceedings from another person). (e.g. Legislative or Judicial Branch) even if Trump is no longer in public office.
However, a court overturned the judge’s decision. First, last September, it temporarily suspended investigations into classified documents seized by the FBI in the Mar-a-Lago raid in early August. Then he ruled the matter in a judgment that put Judge Cannon in a very bad position: “The law is clear. We cannot create a rule that would allow a search warrant subject to block a government investigation after the search warrant has been executed. Nor can we make a rule that only allows former presidents to do this,” he said at the end of his 21-page decision.
In addition, the court noted that the judge had no jurisdiction to issue the order, citing the extraordinary fact that a search was being conducted at the home of a former president. For this, the judges dedicate a corrective to him: “It is certainly extraordinary that a court order is executed in the residence of a former president, but not in a way that impairs our legal analysis or otherwise gives the judiciary permission to intervene.” an ongoing investigation,” said the three judges, two of whom were also appointed by Trump himself. “Creating a specific exception here would challenge our nation’s founding principle that our law applies to all, regardless of number, wealth or rank,” they add.
While the investigation into Trump continued, the Justice Department dropped investigations into classified documents illegally brought to his home after Mike Pence, who was vice president during the tycoon’s tenure, left office. Prosecutors informed Pence in a June 1 letter that the investigation had been dropped and assured him that no charges would be brought.
At the end of January, it was announced that Trump’s former vice president’s assistants had discovered a dozen documents with non-disclosure notices at his home in Indiana. Pence joined Trump himself and current President Joe Biden in also unlawfully taking confidential documents into their homes. In the Biden case, as in the Trump case, the Justice Department appointed an Attorney General to handle the investigation.
In Pence’s case, it was “a small number of classified documents that were accidentally bagged and transported to the former vice president’s private home at the end of his last term,” the politician’s lawyer wrote in a letter to the US government archives. National, the institution responsible for keeping the documents and records when presidents and vice presidents leave office.
Trump, who was convicted of sex abuse in a civil trial, has other legal fronts open.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is investigating whether he illegally interfered in Georgia’s 2020 election, said she plans to announce in the coming months whether she will face charges. Willis has hinted the possible charges will arrive in August. In a letter to the chief judge of the district high court, Ural Glanville, he indicated that he intended many of his staff to work remotely most days during the first three weeks of August, urging the judges to have no in-person hearings during that time and hearings to be scheduled part of this time for security reasons.
[Noticia de última hora. Habrá ampliación en breve]
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