Donald Trump, a former president, announced that he has been indicted in a review into how he handled confidential data. This is his second indictment in around two months.
On Thursday night, Trump announced the information in a vehement post on his Truth Social website.
In his letter, Trump said, “The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, allegedly over the Boxes Hoax.”
Trump said he had been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm.
Trump: ‘I am an innocent man’
‘I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election,’ Trump wrote in another post.
‘I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!’
It comes after Trump on March 30 became the first former president to be indicted, in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into his role in a hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on April 4.
Shortly after 7.30pm on Thursday, Trump sent out a fundraising email with the indictment news and asked his supporters to ‘make a contribution to peacefully stand’ with him.
‘We are watching our Republic DIE before our very eyes,’ stated the email.
‘The Biden-appointed Special Counsel has INDICTED me in yet another witch hunt regarding documents that I had the RIGHT to declassify as President of the United States.
‘This witch hunt began when the FBI RAIDED my home and then staged it to look like a made-for-TV crime scene with police sirens and flashing red and blue lights.’
The investigation, overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, centers on boxes of records that the FBI seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on August 8. They included 184 documents that were marked as classified. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and repeatedly called Smith’s probe a witch hunt.
On Thursday, a federal grand jury reportedly met in Florida in Smith’s probe.
The indictment is under seal, a source told NBC News.
A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment.
Trump shared a four-minute-long video on Truth Social in which he asserted he is innocent and slammed the Biden administration.
‘They can’t stop, because it’s election interference at the highest level,’ said Trump. ‘There’s never been anything like what’s happened. I’m an innocent man. I’m an innocent person.’
In another post, he wrote that ‘this is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America’.
Trump’s new indictment comes six days after the Justice Department said it would not file charges against his former vice president Mike Pence for classified documents found in his Indiana home. Pence filed to run for president on Monday.
Despite growing legal troubles, Trump remains the clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.