The “corrupt Biden administration” has informed my lawyers that I have been charged, Trump said.
Washington:
Donald Trump said Thursday he has been charged with his handling of classified documents after his term in office, the former US president’s biggest legal threat to date as a storm of criminal investigation jeopardizes his bid for a second White House term .
“The corrupt Biden administration has informed my lawyers that I have been charged, apparently because of the Boxes Hoax,” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social as he broke what would be bombshell news of a historic moment for the United States: the first time a sitting or former commander-in-chief has ever faced federal charges.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Justice Department regarding Trump’s allegation, although some US media, including The New York Times, quoted sources as saying that Trump has indeed been charged.
In his post, Trump, who is running for president again, said he was summoned to a federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday.
“I never imagined that such a thing could happen to a former president of the United States,” he wrote.
Trump’s announcement came a day after US media said federal prosecutors have informed the former president’s lawyers that he is being targeted by the investigation into his handling of classified documents.
He was already the first former or sitting president to be charged with a crime – in his case for paying hush money on the eve of an election to a porn star who said she was having an affair with him. That indictment, filed by the Manhattan District Attorney, came down in March.
It remained unclear Thursday what exactly Trump was accused of in the latest case.
Trump, who turns 77 next week, has repeatedly denied any allegations.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, named by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, has examined a cache of classified documents Trump stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida after he left the White House.
The FBI seized some 11,000 papers after issuing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August, and Trump faces obstruction of justice charges after months of resisting efforts to recover the treasure.
Trump finally turned over 15 boxes of nearly 200 classified documents to the National Archives in January last year, but was subpoenaed for outstanding documents in his possession.
Investigators have investigated several suspected attempts to prevent them from accessing documents and footage from a security camera near the Mar-a-Lago storage area where documents were kept.
– Mounting legal woes –
Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the documents case, including at a Fox News event at City Hall on June 1 when he said, “I don’t know about it. All I know is this: Everything I did was right.”
But he has openly admitted to taking and keeping the documents, undermining his lawyers’ suggestion that he inadvertently took the stash in the confusion of a chaotic departure.
The latest indictment comes with Trump facing numerous other investigations as he bids to be the Republican nominee to challenge President Joe Biden for the presidency in 2024.
Smith is also investigating whether Trump should be indicted over the 2021 Capitol riot, and prosecutors in Georgia are investigating whether Trump illegally attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election there.
The former president has already been charged with dozens of financial crimes as part of an alleged hush money scheme to silence a porn star who claims to have had sex with him.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
