2023-06-09 00:34:25
Former US President Donald Trump has apparently been indicted once more by the US judiciary. Trump wrote on Thursday (local time) on the “Truth Social” portal he co-founded that his lawyers had been informed regarding the process, which apparently had something to do with the investigation into the affair regarding secret government documents. Trump has maintained his innocence and called his successor Joe Biden’s government “corrupt”.
The federal police FBI had searched Trump’s private home Mar-a-Lago in Florida in August and confiscated various classified information, some with the highest classification level. The fact that the Republican kept the documents in his private home long following he left office might have made him liable to prosecution. For months, the National Archives tried to get papers from Trump’s administration. Trump’s lawyers had finally handed over documents – but by no means all of them, as it turned out during the FBI search of the Mar-a-Lago property.
“The corrupt Biden administration has informed my lawyers that charges have been brought once morest me, apparently for fraud (of allegedly classified documents) in boxes (…)”, Trump wrote without making it clear who his team was had contacted exactly. He had been subpoenaed and was due to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. (local time). “I never thought it would happen to a former President of the United States (…)” he wrote. He added, “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!” It is “a dark day” for the United States.
On Wednesday, US media had already reported that another indictment once morest Trump might be closer because the team of special counsel Jack Smith had informed the Trump camp that the 76-year-old was a target of the investigation.
The US Department of Justice appointed the independent special counsel Smith in November to outsource the politically sensitive investigation into Trump. On the one hand, Smith takes care of the investigations in connection with secret government documents. On the other hand, he deals with Trump’s role in the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 and his efforts to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. A committee of inquiry had recommended criminal investigations to the Ministry of Justice. Among other things, he accuses Trump of rioting, obstructing a public process and conspiring once morest the US government. However, the Committee’s recommendation is not binding.
Trump has long railed that his opponents are merely trying to prevent him from returning to the White House in 2024. He officially announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in November. So far, he’s ahead in polls among party supporters – but a lot can still happen before the final decision is made.
Trump had already been charged in New York in connection with hush money payments to a porn star. However, further investigations are still underway once morest him. All eyes were on the New York case that led to the first criminal indictment in US history of an ex-president, in which he pleaded not guilty. In the state of Georgia, the public prosecutor’s office is also investigating Trump for possible election manipulation. In another case, Trump has already been prosecuted – at least indirectly. His real estate group was fined in New York for tax fraud, among other things. The ex-president was not personally accused.
Secret government documents from his time as Vice President under Barack Obama were also found on US President Joe Biden in premises where they should not have been kept. Here, too, an independent special investigator is active. In Biden’s case, however, there are significantly fewer documents. According to the White House, Biden has also not refused to hand over documents.
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