After leaving office in 2021, former US President Donald Trump was charged late on Thursday (June 8) with mishandling confidential government materials, making him the first former president in US history to be charged with a crime by the federal government.
The AP claimed that despite Trump’s recent announcement that he would run for president of the United States in 2024, the US Justice Department was planning to make a seven-count indictment public before to a “historic” court appearance next week. What this case is about is as follows.
Trump was requested to turn over some confidential government records he had in May 2021, a few months after he left office in January of that year after losing the 2020 Presidential election. He received a warning from the National Archives and Records Agency (NARA) for failing to turn over at least twenty boxes of original records.
The inquiry into Trump’s handling of sensitive materials got up in earnest with a subpoena in May 2022, according to a New York Times report from the time. After he had willingly turned up an initial set of papers, which contained nearly 200 classified documents, it demanded the return of any classified material remained in his possession.
The inquiry into Trump’s handling of sensitive materials got up in earnest with a subpoena in May 2022, according to a New York Times report from the time. After he had willingly turned up an initial set of papers, which contained nearly 200 classified documents, it demanded the return of any classified material remained in his possession.
His team informed the Archives that they had found some of the records in December of that year, and they then went on to return them. In response to the subpoena, M. Evan Corcoran, the attorney for Trump, provided investigators with more than 30 papers.
However, when the FBI conducted a search at Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, they found over 100 additional classified documents.
It is important to note that current US President Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence have both come under fire for possessing sensitive data, and an inquiry is ongoing in Biden’s case.
But the incidents involving Biden and Pence are different from the one concerning Trump. The fact that the records in their hands were voluntarily turned over to authorities as soon as they were discovered marks a significant distinction, according to the AP.
“In the case of Trump, prosecutors have focused on a few key questions: Did Trump knowingly remove the sensitive records from the White House and did he willfully hold on to them in violation of the Espionage Act? Moreover, did he try to hinder investigators from figuring out why or where he kept them,” The New York Times said.
According to persons familiar with the situation, Trump has now been charged with a total of seven charges, including making false statements and a conspiracy to obstruct justice. Other accusations include wilfully keeping national security secrets in violation of the Espionage Act.
Trump has been charged with federal crimes by the Justice Department, and he is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, June 13.
The indictment contains allegations of purposeful retention of national security secrets, obstruction of justice, making false statements, and conspiracy, according to Trump’s attorney James Trusty, who spoke on CNN on June 8th.
