|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Former US President Donald Trump has been charged over his handling of classified documents after he left the White House.
Mr Trump, 76, faces seven charges including unauthorised retention of classified files, US media reported. The charges are not yet public.
It is the second indictment of Mr Trump and the first ever federal indictment of a former president.
He is campaigning to make a return to the White House in 2024.
Legal experts say the indictment will not limit Mr Trump’s ability to run for the presidency again.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Mr Trump said he was innocent and had been summoned to appear at a federal court in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday afternoon, where he will be arrested and hear the charges against him.
“I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former president of the United States,” he wrote.
He added: “This is indeed a dark day for the United States of America. We are a country in serious and rapid decline, but together we will Make America Great Again!”
Mr Trump’s attorney Jim Trusty told CNN the former president had received details of the charges in a summons document.
He said they include conspiracy, false statements, obstruction of justice, and illegally retaining classified documents under the Espionage Act.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to comment and the indictment has not been publicly released.
An indictment is a document that sets out details of charges against a person, ensuring they have notice of alleged criminal offenses.
The Secret Service will meet Mr Trump’s staff and his security officers to plan his journey to the Miami courthouse.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith has been considering evidence in the documents case since he was appointed to oversee it by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November.
Last year, Mr Trump’s Florida resort Mar-a-Lago was searched and 11,000 documents were seized, including around 100 marked as classified. Some of these were labelled top secret.
There were reports last week that prosecutors had obtained an audio recording of Mr Trump in which he acknowledged keeping a classified document after leaving the White House in January 2021.
Mr Trump became the first former president to be charged with a crime this April, after he pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records over a hush-money payment to a porn star.
He faces a trial in that case in New York next year.
Source: myghanadaily
