Holly MatkinBy Holly Matkin and Sandy Malone
Miami, FL – Former President Donald Trump was federally indicted on seven counts on Thursday amid allegations he mishandled classified documents after he left the White House in 2021.
According to his attorney, Jim Trusty, President Trump was charged under the Espionage Act and also faces charges of destruction or falsification of records, false statements, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy, CNN reported.
The indictment marks the first time in U.S. history that a former president has faced federal charges.
The case was investigated by special counsel and involved allegations President Trump mishandled classified documents brought to his resort in Mar-a-Lago after President Joe Biden took over the White House in 2021, CNN reported.
The investigation also involved looking into allegations President Trump obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve the classified documents and that he tried to obstruct the investigation itself.
Thousands of documents were seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during a search warrant at the Mar-a-Lago resort in August of 2022, CNN reported.
Approximately 100 of those documents were allegedly marked as classified.
Trusty said on Thursday the Espionage Act charge against President Trump is nothing short of “ludicrous,” CNN reported.
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” President Trump said in a statement on Thursday night. “I am an innocent man. I did nothing wrong.”
He noted he was summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami at 3 p.m. on June 13, CNN reported.
I AM AN INNOCENT MAN. THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS TOTALLY CORRUPT. THIS IS ELECTION INTERFERENCE & A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!! pic.twitter.com/kQxMDBBLTM
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) June 9, 2023
The federal indictment is just one of the criminal cases President Trump is currently facing.
The twice-impeached former President pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of first-degree falsifying business records in New York in April.
A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict the former President on March 30 after hearing testimony about hush money payments allegedly authorized by President Trump back in 2016, before he was elected, WNBC reported.
Prosecutors launched the investigation into what became the scandal over porn star Stormy Daniels in 2018 after the President’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, claimed he paid her $130,000 on his client’s behalf ahead of the Presidential election.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging President Trump in 2019 even though Cohen implicated him in his own plea deal, FOX News reported.
And the Federal Election Commission (FEC) dropped its investigation into the alleged hush payments in 2021.
President Trump has announced he is running for President again in 2024, regardless of the criminal cases now pending against him in two separate jurisdictions.
Two more investigations into the former President remain ongoing, according to CNN.
