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CNN
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Former President Donald Trump has been indicted over a special counsel investigation into classified documents, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, in a startling development that marks the first time a former president has been indicted on federal charges. .
Another source said Trump was charged with seven counts in the indictment.
The former president wrote to Truth Social that he was informed of the indictment by the Department of Justice and was “summoned to appear in federal court in Miami at 3 p.m. Tuesday.”
“The corrupt Biden administration has informed my lawyers that I have been indicted for an apparently Boxes hoax,” Trump wrote.
The special counsel declined to comment. The Justice Department is moving additional resources to Miami ahead of an expected court appearance, a law enforcement official told CNN.
The federal indictment marks the second time Trump has faced criminal charges this year. In April, the Manhattan District Attorney indicted Trump on 34 counts of false business.
But the indictment from the special counsel marks a new and more dangerous legal stage for the former president, who is running again in the 2024 presidential election, facing criminal charges in two jurisdictions. Two additional investigations into his conduct are still underway.
The indictments against Trump come just seven days after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel to keep the investigation independent of the Biden Department of Justice after Trump announced his candidacy. done in a month.
Now, Trump faces federal indictments from a special counsel as he seeks to oust President Joe Biden in next year’s presidential election.
The White House declined to comment Thursday night.
President Trump has lashed out at the special counsel’s investigation and other investigations into his actions, claiming they are all efforts to stop him politically. The former president maintains that any criminal charges will not stop the 2024 election campaign.
Trump has long avoided legal responsibility in his personal, professional and political life. He has settled numerous private civil lawsuits over the years and paid settlements from disputes involving the Trump Organization. He was twice impeached as president by the Democratic-led House of Representatives, but his Senate conviction was avoided.
But since leaving office, Trump has been overshadowed by a Justice Department criminal investigation into his keeping classified information at his Mar-a-Lago resort and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Smith’s investigation into January 6th and efforts to overturn the election are ongoing.
And in addition to the Manhattan District Attorney’s April indictment, Fulton County District Attorney Fanny Willis said in August whether there were any charges in an investigation into an attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. We are planning to announce it.
02:17 – Source: CNN
FMr. Prosecutor: Why is it so hard to send someone in power to jail?
The Justice Department’s investigation into President Trump’s actions related to documents during his tenure opened thousands of cases, including about 100 classified as classified, in August when FBI agents executed a search warrant in Mar-a-Lago. The seizure of the documents drew public attention. The FBI also subpoenaed the Trump Organization to obtain surveillance video from the resort.
Prosecutors said in court filings they were pursuing possible criminal mishandling of national security information and obstruction of justice. The Justice Department previously said classified documents were “possibly hidden and removed from Mar-a-Lago vaults” as part of “obstructing” an FBI investigation into possible mishandling of classified documents by President Trump. There is,” he claimed.
After Trump returned 15 boxes of materials to the National Archives in January, the Justice Department subpoenaed Trump in May to reveal classified marked documents still stored at Mar-a-Lago. asked for
Trump directed his staff to search for any remaining classified materials to respond to the subpoena, according to a subsequent lawsuit. After federal agents recovered the documents from the resort in June, his attorney later told investigators that a search of the storage location revealed the whereabouts of all classified documents.
Prosecutors said in August that some documents may have been taken from the vault before Trump’s lawyers investigated the scene in an attempt to comply with the subpoena.
In recent months, prosecutors have questioned dozens of witnesses, including Trump aides and employees of Mar-a-Lago and the Trump Organization. Most of the witnesses appeared before a grand jury in Washington, DC, but several witnesses have testified before a southern Florida grand jury in recent weeks.
Prosecutors obtained an audio tape of President Trump speaking about classified Pentagon documents during a 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey. In the recording, first reported by CNN, President Trump confirmed the documents were still classified, undermining his own claims that anything he brought into Mar-a-Lago was declassified. .
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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