Based on rumours, Donald Trump might spend up to 100 years in prison.
The former US President said that he was accused of mishandling confidential materials at his Florida resort and that he had been indicted.
The charge, which would lead to a federal investigation and provide possibly the most dangerous of legal threats to the former president, was not immediately publicly confirmed by the Justice Department.
Mr Trump said he is due in court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon.
The 76-year-old has already been indicted in New York and faces additional investigations in Washington and Atlanta that could lead to criminal charges.
The indictment arises from a months-long investigation by special counsel Jack Smith into whether he broke the law by holding onto hundreds of documents marked classified at his Palm Beach property Mar-a-Lago and whether he took steps to obstruct the government’s efforts to recover the records.
According to ABC News, which cited sources, Mr Trump could be looking at 100 years in prison if convicted on the seven charges in the classified documents case.
The charges he faces include willful retention of national defence information, which alone carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.
An extra 20 years could come from a conspiracy to obstruct justice, while another two decades could be added for withholding a document or record.
The charges of corruptly concealing a document or record and concealing a document in a federal investigation also could lead to 20 year sentences.
Finally, scheme to conceal and false statements and representations both carry the weight of five years as maximum penalty.
Prosecutors have said the former president took roughly 300 classified documents to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House, including around 100 which were seized by the FBI in August during a search of the home that underscored the gravity of the Justice Department’s investigation.
Mr Trump and his team have long seen the special counsel investigation as far more perilous than the New York matter – both politically and legally.
It remains unclear what the immediate and long-term political consequences will be for the former President.
His first indictment spurred millions of dollars in contributions from angry supporters and did not damage Mr Trump in the polls as the 2024 presidential race ramps up.
He revealed the news of his indictment in a fiery post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening.
‘The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,’ wrote Mr Trump.
‘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.