Donald Trump Indicted on 7 Charges Over Classified Documents
- nbcnews.com
VIVA – Donald Trump has just become the first former president in American history to face federal criminal charges. Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump with illegally retaining national security or espionage documents and obstructing government efforts to recover them after he stepped down from the White House.Â
The exact nature of the indictment, filed in federal district court in Miami, is unclear because it remains under seal and the justice department had no immediate comment.
Trump confirmed the indictment on his Truth Social social media platform on Thursday afternoon, shortly after his lawyers received an email from prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith that outlined the charges and summoned the former president to surrender himself to authorities in Miami next Tuesday.
The charges listed in the summons included: willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document, corruptly concealing a document, concealing a document in a federal investigation, engaging in a scheme to conceal and false statements, people familiar with the matter said.
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Trump lawyer Jim Trusty confirmed that prosecutors had listed seven charges on the summons paper. Trusty said he had not seen a copy of the indictment but added he was hopeful that it might be unsealed before Trump makes his first appearance in court.
If Trump is found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of 100 years in prison. However, the judge can also impose the lightest sentence, which is no jail time at all.
From his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, Trump denounced the charges in a series of posts on Truth Social. "I never thought that anything like this could happen to a former President of the United States," Trump said, adding: "I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!"Â
The former president was said to be resigned to the fact that he would probably be indicted after prosecutors impaneled a new grand jury in Florida to take evidence in the case last month, which his advisers saw as a sign that the case had been moved from Washington for its final stages.
