Trump faces 37 criminal counts over mishandling classified documents

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
9 Jun 2023 22:48

Former US President Donald Trump is up against the ropes, with the judiciary revealing that he is facing 37 criminal counts.

Then-President Donald Trump sits at his desk after a meeting with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, February 8, 2017 (AP)

An indictment made public on Friday said former US President Donald Trump is accused of committing 37 felony offenses including conspiracy to obstruct justice and deliberate retention of national security material.

Trump is accused of withholding a document during a federal investigation, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, 31 counts of intentional retention of national security information, two distinct counts of making false statements, and other connected offenses.

According to the indictment, he could get a term of up to 20 years in jail for a number of crimes.

Trump has attacked prosecutors for not pursuing Joe Biden, the current US President, for his alleged improper handling of secret documents in the same manner. Biden has denied the claims of misconduct.

Trump confirmed earlier on Thursday that he had been indicted over his handling of classified documents after leaving office, in another legal threat to his bid for a second White House term.

"The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, though there was no immediate confirmation from the Justice Department regarding Trump's assertion.

Trump was already the first former or sitting president to be charged with a crime -- in his case over election-eve hush money payments to a porn star who said she had an affair with him.

In a statement after his initial online posts, the Trump campaign slammed what it called an "unprecedented abuse of power" and called for the indictment to be dismissed.

In a video released after he announced the news, Trump repeatedly declared his innocence and considered that the indictment was a form of election interference by a US Justice Department "weaponized" by President Joe Biden's administration.

"They come after me because now we're leading in the polls again by a lot against Biden," Trump claimed in the clip.

"Our country is going to hell and they come after Donald Trump... We can't let this continue," he added.

Special counsel Jack Smith, named by US Attorney General Merrick Garland, has been looking into a stockpile of classified documents that Trump had stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida after leaving the White House.

The FBI transported some 11,000 papers after serving a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago in August, and obstruction-of-justice charges could be a result of his resisting efforts to recover the cache.

Trump eventually turned over 15 boxes containing almost 200 classified documents to the National Archives in January 2022 but was subpoenaed for any outstanding records in his possession.

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the case. But he has openly acknowledged taking and storing the documents, undermining his lawyers' suggestion that he took the documents unintentionally.