Donald Trump has been indicted again. He is now the first president, former or current, to be charged with a federal crime.
The charges stem from an investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents that he kept after he left the White House. Federal officials tried to get those documents back, and Trump is accused of resisting their efforts and trying to keep the files for himself.
Trump faces at least seven criminal counts, my Times colleagues reported. They include willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The Justice Department has not confirmed or announced the charges.
It is not unusual for federal officials to misplace or accidentally hold on to classified documents. Such files were found in the homes of President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence. What is unusual in Trump’s case are his apparent efforts to keep the documents as federal officials asked him to return them.
Trump described the charges and investigation as part of a political witch hunt. “I’m an innocent man,” he said in a video last night. “I’m an innocent person.”
Today’s newsletter will explain the case and whether the charges could affect Trump’s third run for president, and offer a selection of the best coverage of the indictment, from The Times and elsewhere.
The case
The charges go back to January 2021, when Trump left office and some documents were packed in boxes shipped from the White House to his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. The National Archives, which keeps presidential records, tried for much of the following year to get back the documents, which were considered government property. In January 2022, Trump turned over 15 boxes of material after what his lawyers claimed was a “diligent search.”
But Trump did not turn over everything in his possession. In August, an F.B.I. search at Mar-a-Lago turned up more than 100 classified documents.
In a court filing, the Justice Department noted that in just hours of searching, the F.B.I. recovered “twice as many documents with classification markings” as Trump’s search did — casting doubt on how much he cooperated with the government’s pursuit of the records. Since then, the Justice Department has been investigating the extent to which Trump tried to hide the documents, even after the government served him with a subpoena to return them.
Trump has argued that he was allowed to keep the files because he declassified them before taking them home. But officials appear to have a recording of Trump discussing a sensitive military document and acknowledging that it was not declassified. Investigators have also interviewed Mar-a-Lago staff and reviewed security camera footage to build their case.
Beyond that, we know relatively little about what information the documents contain. Dozens taken from Mar-a-Lago had classified markings.
There is another important detail: Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the case, secured an indictment against Trump in Miami, not Washington. Florida, a state that Trump won twice, could provide a jury that is friendlier to him than a Democratic stronghold like Washington.
What’s next
Trump is expected to be arraigned in Miami on Tuesday, at which point prosecutors will probably release details of the charges.
In the meantime, Trump’s campaign is already fund-raising off the indictment. The charges do not prevent him from running for president. He might not be tried or convicted before the 2024 election. He could campaign, and even try to govern, from prison, according to legal experts.
“In a week in which three other Republicans — Mike Pence, Chris Christie and Doug Burgum — declared their 2024 candidacies, the indictment of Trump guarantees he will completely dominate the political conversation,” wrote my colleague Shane Goldmacher, a national political reporter.
Trump’s standing in the Republican primary actually improved after he was charged this year in New York for a scheme to cover up potential sex scandals in his 2016 run for president. The trial in that case is scheduled for 2024.
Republican lawmakers signaled their continued support for Trump. “Sad day for America,” Representative Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican and longtime Trump ally, tweeted last night. “God Bless President Trump.”
Trump faces two more criminal investigations. Another federal inquiry led by Smith is examining Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. And a prosecutor in Georgia is investigating Trump’s election interference in that state. Charges could come from those investigations in the coming weeks or months.
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