Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has been charged by federal justice for his management of the White House archives, a new pitfall for the Republican who wishes to regain the American presidency in 2024.
“The corrupt Biden administration has notified my attorneys that I have been charged, presumably in the bogus boxing case,” he wrote on his Truth Social network.
The Republican billionaire said he was summoned to federal court in Miami on Tuesday.
This is the first time in US history that a former president has faced federal indictment.
In March, he had already been charged by the justice of the State of New York in the case of the purchase of the silence of an actress of pornographic films in 2016.
This time, he is accused of having kept whole boxes of documents, including some classified as “secret defense”, after his departure from Washington in 2021 and of having refused to return them, in violation of federal laws.
According to several American media, he would face seven charges, not yet made public.
Donald Trump, who is currently well ahead of the other candidates for the Republican nomination, has always defended himself from any embezzlement and presents himself as the victim of “political persecution”.
“I never imagined that it would be possible for such a thing to happen to a former president of the United States,” he castigated Thursday, denouncing “a dark day” for the country.
“How could the Ministry of Justice indict me when I did nothing”, he wrote again on Truth Social on Monday, when his lawyers were received by officials from this ministry.
This meeting was seen as a signal that an indictment was imminent after months of investigation, culminating in the spectacular search of his Florida home in August 2022.
11,000 records
In the United States, a 1978 law obliges all American presidents to transmit all of their e-mails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives. Another law, on espionage, prohibits anyone from keeping documents classified as confidential in unauthorized and unsecured places.
Leaving the presidency to settle in his luxurious Mar-a-Lago residence, Donald Trump nevertheless took entire boxes of files.
In January 2022, after several reminders, he agreed to return 15 boxes, containing more than 200 classified documents.
In a letter, his lawyers then assured that there were no others.
After examination, the federal police, however, estimated that he had not returned everything and that he still kept a lot in his club in Palm Beach.
FBI agents went there on August 8, and seized around thirty other boxes, containing 11,000 documents, some of which were very sensitive, on Iran or China.
Strongly denouncing a media operation, his lawyers strongly criticized the FBI for publishing, according to them unnecessary, a photo showing seized documents stamped with the words ” Top secret “, scattered on a carpet with a floral pattern.
To silence accusations of a frame-up, Justice Secretary Merrick Garland in November appointed a special prosecutor, Jack Smith, to oversee this investigation independently, as well as another into Donald Trump’s role in the assault. of the Capitol.
Setbacks
Another special prosecutor is investigating in parallel classified documents found earlier this year in a former office and at the home of Democratic President Joe Biden by his lawyers.
These embarrassing finds, along with others from ex-Vice President Mike Pence, allowed Donald Trump to downplay his conduct, even though Joe Biden has always cooperated with the judiciary, voluntarily returning the documents, in much smaller number.
The Republican tribune also used his rival’s discoveries to rally his supporters who, each time justice strikes him, close ranks around him.
This was particularly the case in April, shortly after his indictment by the justice of the State of New York.
It was the first time in American history that a former president faced criminal charges. The latter were therefore quick to repeat themselves and Donald Trump’s setbacks will undoubtedly not stop there.
A Georgia state prosecutor, who has been investigating for months the pressure exerted by the Republican to try to change the result of the 2020 presidential election, must announce the result of her investigations by September.