By Le Figaro
Posted 40 minutes ago, just updated
This is the first time in US history that a former president has faced federal indictment. RUSSELL CHEYNE / Portal
The former US president has been accused of keeping boxes of documents, some classified as “secret defense” documents, after leaving Washington in 2021 and refusing to return them in violation of federal law.
Former US President Donald Trump announced Thursday, June 8, that he has been indicted by federal justice over his administration of the White House archives, a new obstacle for the Republican seeking to win back the US presidency in 2024. “The corrupt Biden administration informed me that lawyers charged me, presumably in the wrong case of the boxes,” he wrote on his network Truth Social earlier this evening. The Republican billionaire said he was summoned to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.
This is the first time in US history that a former president has faced federal indictment. In March, he had already been indicted by the New York state judiciary in a 2016 case of buying the silence of an actress from X movies, some classified as “secret defense,” after he left Washington in 2021 and refused her returned in violation of federal law. According to several American media, he faces seven charges that have not yet been published.
Donald Trump, who is currently well ahead of the other candidates for the Republican nomination, has consistently denied any embezzlement and portrayed himself as a victim of “political persecution”. “I never thought that something like this would happen to a former President of the United States could,” he castigated on Thursday and denounced “a dark day” for the country. “How could the Justice Department charge me when I didn’t do anything,” he wrote again on Truth Social Monday when his attorneys were met by Department officials. That meeting was taken as a signal that indictment was imminent after months of investigations that culminated in the spectacular search of his Florida home in August 2022.
11,000 documents
In the United States, a 1978 law requires all American presidents to submit all their e-mails, letters, and other working documents to the national archives. Another espionage law prohibits anyone from storing classified documents in unauthorized and unsecured locations. When Donald Trump left the presidency to settle in his luxurious residence in Mar-a-Lago, he still took entire boxes of files with him. In January 2022, after several reminders, he agreed to the return of 15 boxes containing more than 200 classified documents. In a letter, his lawyers then assured that there were no more.
However, after the investigation, federal police concluded that he had not returned everything and that he was still storing much at his Palm Beach club. FBI agents were there on August 8 and confiscated around thirty other boxes containing 11,000 documents, some of which were very sensitive, about Iran or China. His lawyers strongly condemned a media operation and slammed the FBI for what they felt was a needless release of a photo of confiscated documents labeled “Top Secret” scattered on a floral patterned rug.
special prosecutor
To silence allegations of conspiracy, Attorney General Merrick Garland in November appointed a special attorney, Jack Smith, to independently oversee this investigation and another probe into Donald Trump’s role in the Capitol attack. Another special prosecutor is also investigating classified documents found by his attorneys at a former office and home of Democratic President Joe Biden earlier this year. These embarrassing finds, along with others from ex-Vice President Mike Pence, allowed Donald Trump to downplay his behavior, though Joe Biden has consistently cooperated with justice and voluntarily returned the documents, in much smaller numbers.
The Republican People’s Tribune also used his rival’s discoveries to rally his supporters, who close ranks around him whenever justice strikes him. This was particularly the case in April, shortly after his indictment by the New York State Judiciary. It was the first time in American history that a former president had been prosecuted. The latter were therefore repeated quickly and Donald Trump’s setbacks will undoubtedly not stop there. A Georgia prosecutor who has been investigating Republican pressure to change the 2020 presidential election result for months has had until September to release the results of her investigation.