By Steve Neavling
The Justice Department on Friday unsealed a 37-count indictment against former President Donald Trump, alleging he mishandled classified documents at his Florida estate, making him the first former president to be charged with a federal crime, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Trump is expected to be arraigned in federal court in Miami on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
The charges in the 49-page-indictment include willful retention of national-defense information, withholding a record, false statements and conspiracy to obstruct. Trump’s assistant Walt Nauta, who previously worked at the White House, faces a false-statement charge.
None of the charges carry a mandatory-minimum prison sentence, which means, even if convicted, Trump could avoid serving time.
“I invite everyone to read it in full to understand the scope and the gravity of the crimes charged,” Special Counsel Jack Smith said Friday. “We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone.”
It is the second time Trump has been criminally charged since March, when he was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in state court. Those charges were related to hush money payments while he was running for president in 2016.
Trump denied wrongdoing in both cases and took to his social media site Truth Social on Thursday to demand, “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!”
“I have been indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump wrote, adding he was being treated unfairly.
“I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States.”
