Trump is charged with seven counts of hiding classified documents at his Florida mansion

The former president of the United States, Donald Trump, made history once again on Thursday night. Special prosecutor Jack Smith, appointed by the Department of Justice, has decided to indict the mogul for taking and hiding classified documents that the FBI found at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach (Florida), and he is due to appear in court. Federal Court in Miami on Tuesday at 15:00 (21:00 Spanish time) for his surrender and the reading of the charges. Trump himself announced this through the social network Truth Social, and it was confirmed by the main American media.

The Justice Department, which oversees the federal government, has not yet released the charges against the former president, but multiple sources have confirmed there are at least seven criminal charges. Between them, as stated The New York Times, he is charged with willful concealment of national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements, and obstruction of justice. The latter charge involves the participation of another person in the commission of the crime.

Not only did Trump take more than 300 classified documents and tens of thousands of other government documents to his Palm Beach residence, he also refused to hand them over when required. In the event of such a refusal, the Department of Justice requested FBI agents to search the mansion last August. Trump has maintained from the start that he had the right to keep the classified documents when he left the White House, even claiming without evidence that he had classified them.

Federal prosecutors recently obtained a transcript of a meeting that took place in the summer of 2021, after Trump left the presidency, in which the tycoon admitted to possessing a classified Pentagon document about a hypothetical attack on Iran. CNN published it last Friday. That and other incriminating evidence would lead to Trump’s indictment, which is still pending confirmation by the Justice Department.

Trump is already looking for political benefits from his second historic impeachment

After Trump’s indictment in New York in April — the first against a sitting or retired president — in which he was charged with 34 counts of perjury for concealing payments to actress Stormi Daniels to buy her silence about an extramarital affair, the former president made history once again. The former president has been indicted for the first time on federal charges related to the execution of his mandate. And if he’s convicted of the seven felony charges he’s allegedly facing, he could spend dozens of years in prison.

“The corrupt Biden administration informed my lawyers that they have been indicted for what appears to be box tampering, even though Joe Biden has 1,850 boxes at the University of Delaware, plus boxes in Chinatown, DC, and more boxes. at the University of Pennsylvania and documents scattered all over the floor of his garage where he parks his Corvette. Trump posted on Truth Social, announced his belonging to the world. “I am an innocent person. The Biden administration is completely corrupt. This is election interference and the continuation of the biggest witch hunt of all time,” he said in a video posted on the same social network.

As he did with the indictment in New York, Trump has already begun to use the indictment to victimize himself for political purposes. Republican primary candidate, who Easily dominates polls (with 53.8% support, 32.5 points higher than second-place finisher Ron DeSantis), said the impeachment went well politically, doubling his lead over the Florida governor and hoping to capitalize on it again.

The most serious accusation against the former president

However, the case is different: in New York, the former president will be tried for events related to his personal life, which happened before his presidency, and in Miami, he will be tried for taking hundreds of documents containing information “top secret”. ” and “classified” during his years in office and to relinquish them when necessary. By comparison, Biden — who is also being investigated — has only had access to dozens of documents, and he turned them over to the Justice Department when his advisers found them.

In addition to those two court cases, Trump also has pending charges in courts in Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, where he is being investigated for his involvement in the Capitol attack and for attempting to rig the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. In both cases, you may be charged with a criminal offense, that is, more years of imprisonment.

In all court cases, Trump’s strategy is usually to try to drag out the process as long as possible with resources, appeals and other legal strategies. This is what he did before he entered politics and is expected to continue to do so with the affairs on his head. According to several legal experts, the former president’s delaying tactics could delay the start of the trial until at least next spring, in the middle of the Republican primary process.

Source: El Diario

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