Trump sued for storing classified documents | Abroad

“The corrupt Biden administration has informed my lawyers that I have been charged, apparently a boxed hoax,” Trump said. The former president says he is due to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.

According to American media, the indictment contains at least seven counts. These include obstruction, conspiracy and false statements.

On August 8 last year, FBI agents searched Donald Trump’s residence at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. They searched for secret documents that the former president would have taken with him when he left the White House. 13,000 government documents were seized in the raid. About a hundred of them were stamped secret. Trump previously claimed that he took that classification off when he was president, but he offered no evidence.

U.S. law states that all memos, notes, emails, and other written communications from the president must be preserved in government records.

In February last year, the US Archives already removed 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago with documents that did not belong there. The boxes also contained classified information about national security, archivists warned the judiciary. Trump delayed returning the boxes for months and only cooperated when the Justice Department threatened action. The later raid on Trump’s home took place because it was suspected that the former president had not returned all secret documents.

It is the first time in US history that a former president has faced a federal indictment. “It places the nation in a special position not only because of Trump’s status as a former president, but also as a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination to run against Biden in 2024, whose administration is now pursuing a conviction of his potential rival,” the statement said. newspaper The New York Times.

At a press conference at the White House on Thursday, President Joe Biden dismissed suggestions that any conviction of his predecessor and rival would be politically motivated, telling reporters he was being “honest.” “You will see that not once did I suggest to the Justice Department what it should and should not do,” Biden said.

Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy said on Twitter on Thursday that he believes the charges against former President Donald Trump are “a dark day” for the United States.

McCarthy also writes that “it is unconscionable for a president to impeach the top opposition candidate. 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.”

Trump recently lost a civil lawsuit against writer E. Jean Carroll. Then the jury found that he was guilty of sexual abuse. Trump must pay about $ 5 million (4.6 million euros) in damages to Carroll. A criminal case against Trump regarding hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels will start on March 25, 2024.