Former President Donald Trump greets supporters at a Team Trump volunteer leadership training event held at the Grimes Community Complex on June 01, 2023 in Grimes, Iowa.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on federal criminal charges in connection with hundreds of classified government documents he retained after leaving the White House.
Trump himself disclosed the indictment in a series of posts on his Truth Social social media site on Thursday evening. He also said he has been summoned to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday.
NBC News soon after confirmed the indictment, which is the second time in recent months that Trump has been criminally charged. He was first indicted by a New York state grand jury in March on charges of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn star in 2016.
Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is the only U.S. president, former or otherwise, ever to be criminally charged.
“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 on Truth Social on Thursday.
“I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!This is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America,” he wrote.
A spokesman for special counsel Jack Smith, who has been leading the investigation of Trump for the Department of Justice,
Trump has been the focus of a federal criminal investigation since last year over his stonewalling of requests to return government records, including classified documents, after ending his term as president. By law, such records must be returned when a president leaves office.
Trump’s home at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, was raised last August by FBI agents searching for records they believed would be located there.
Agents found hundreds of documents marked classified.
Trump in his social media posts wrote: “The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, D.C., with even more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is “secured” by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time.”
“I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM,” Trump wrote. “We are a Country in serious and rapid Decline, but together we will Make America Great Again!”
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
