Former PresidentDonald Trumphas been indicted in special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents probe, according to multiple reports.
Trump took to his social media site on Thursday to announce the indictment, lobbing accusations at the Biden administration.
The DOJ has not yet weighed in on the reported charges.
Brandon Bell/Getty
The federal indictment contains at least seven counts, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and conspiring to obstruct justice, according toThe New York Times.
He is set to be arraigned in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, according toABC News.
Outlets includingThe Independentreport that Trump’s former chief of staff,Mark Meadows, provided evidence to the grand jury and will plead guilty to federal charges as part of a limited-immunity deal in exchange for his testimony — though Meadows' lawyer denied to The Independent that his client had agreed to any guilty pleas.
News of the indictment comes after prosecutors investigating the case reportedly accessed a July 2021 recording of the former presidentacknowledging that he retained a classified Pentagon documentabout a potential attack on Iran.
In early June 2023, CNN reported that the recording, which was made roughly six months after Trump left the White House, captures the former president suggesting he would like to share the information found in the classified documents but is aware that his ability to declassify records after leaving the White House is limited.
While it’s unclear what sort of evidence Meadows would have provided to the grand jury, it’s worth noting that he wrote about the existence of a “four-page report” that contained information about “a plan to attack Iran” in his own autobiography.
Donald Trump appears in a Manhattan court to answer to criminal charges on April 4.SETH WENIG/POOL/AFP via Getty
With that initial indictment, Trump became the first sitting or former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.
In May, Trump was also found liable forsexually abusing and defamingformerElleadvice columnistE. Jean Carrollfollowing a highly publicized civil trial in Manhattan.
The latest charges against Trump, which could provoke turmoil in the U.S. given his status as a 2024 presidential candidate, come 10 months after news of alleged mishandling of sensitive White House records first broke in 2022.
TheFBI conducted a searchat the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home on Aug. 8 as part of a criminal investigation that began after the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) revealed in February that officials had removed from the property15 boxes of documentsthat should have been handed over at the end of the Trump presidency.
Around that time, NARA asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether Trump violated the Presidential Records Act,The Washington Postreported, and later informed DOJ officials that some of the retrieved documents contained classified material.
Mar-a-Lago Club.Joe Raedle/Getty
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer.
Investigators visited Mar-a-Lago in early June of 2022 and removed additional material marked classified,The New York Timesreported. Around that time, a Trump attorney signed a written statement to confirm that all material marked as classified had been returned, according to theTimes.
But during the Aug. 8 search, FBI agents found and removed 11 sets of classified documents, an unsealed receipt from the search showed. Some of the documents were marked top secret and were only meant to be viewed at secure government facilities.
After news of the search broke,The Washington Postreported that the investigators were looking fordocuments related to nuclear weapons.
The warrant, which was also unsealed Aug. 12, revealed that the FBI was investigating Trump for potential violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records.
source: people.com
