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Donald Trump first US ex-President to face federal indictment
Former US President Donald Trump has been charged by the Department of Justice with mishandling classified documents.
The US department of justice (DOJ) charged Donald Trump, the 45th president of the country, with federal crimes for mishandling classified documents on Thursday. A grand jury in Florida handed the indictment which includes 38 counts of crimes and 31 separate counts of violations of the Espionage Act, adding a new dimension to the 2024 presidential race where Trump leads the race for the Republican nomination.
Read here: Trump’s indictment, and its impact on the 2024 race for White House
This is the first time in American history that a former president faces federal criminal charges. The charges were made public on Friday, and include unauthorised retention of national security documents in violation of the Espionage Act, false statements, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. Trump, the indictment alleges, had illegally kept documents concerning US’s nuclear programmes, its potential vulnerabilities to a military attack, retaliation in case of a foreign attack.
“The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States,” the justice department said.
Trump, who insisted on his innocence and charged the administration with “weaponising the justice system”, will be arraigned in a Miami court on Tuesday.
The case deals with Trump having taken classified files with him after demitting office in January 2021. After a prolonged push by the National Archives and Records Administration, Trump’s team returned 15 boxes of documents in January 2022, 14 of which had classified documents. In response to a subpoena, Trump’s lawyers returned an additional set of documents during the summer. But unconvinced that the former president had returned all the documents that were in his possession, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted a raid at his Mar-a-Lago, Florida, residence in August 2022, discovering 100 more classified documents including national security secrets.
Trump, who has claimed that he had declassified the documents as was his right as president before taking them, responded to the charges by declaring his innocence on social media, both through a post and a video, and saying that America was a nation “going to hell”.
He called it “election interference at the highest level”; claimed he had been charged because he had been doing well in polls; termed the charges “boxes hoax”, in line with the “Russia hoax”, referring to the charges of colluding with Russia during the 2016 elections; declared he was an innocent person who would fight out the charges, and claimed that President Joe Biden had many more classified documents in his possession from his stint as vice-president which has not been investigated. Biden’s team has claimed that as soon as his office had discovered classified documents, unlike Trump, they had returned the documents and cooperated with relevant authorities.
Hours before the news of the indictment became public, when asked about Trump’s allegations about the misuse of the justice system, Biden told reporters in White House on Thursday, “I have never once — not one single time — suggested to the justice department what they should do or not do, relative to bringing a charge or not bringing a charge. I am honest.”
The charges unified the otherwise divided Republican Party, with even Trump’s rivals for the presidential nomination rallying behind him and accusing the administration of “weaponising” the justice system. Florida governor Ron DeSantis tweeted, “The weaponisation of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society. We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation. Why so zealous in pursuing Trump yet so passive about Hillary or Hunter?”
DeSantis’s reference was to Republican claims that Hillary Clinton used her private email for official purposes during her stint as secretary of state, and its allegations of corruption against the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy termed it a “dark day”, claiming it was “unconscionable” for a president to indict the leading candidate opposing him. “Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades. I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponisation of power accountable.”
Read here: Ex-US President Donald Trump indicted on 37 counts in secret documents case
This is just one of the four cases that Trump is embroiled in. Earlier this year, New York prosecutors charged Trump on the grounds of falsifying business records in order to pay hush money to an adult film actress to keep an affair quiet during the 2016 elections. Trump is on the verge of being indicted in Georgia, for his efforts to overturn the state’s electoral results in 2020, while the DOJ is also investigating him for his role in seeking to subvert the 2020 electoral results that led up to the January 6, 2021 mob attack on Capitol Hill.
