Live updates:
- Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have been informed that he has been indicted by a federal grand jury, he posted on his social media platform Thursday night.
- A federal grand jury in Florida has been meeting in special counsel Jack Smith‘s investigation of Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
- Longtime Trump aide Taylor Budowich was asked yesterday before the grand jury about a past public statement on behalf of Trump representing that the former president had not retained classified records, a source said.
- The Florida grand jury is separate from a panel that was convened in Washington, D.C.
- The investigation began last year when the National Archives alerted the FBI that government documents Trump had returned after having been out of office for about a year included 184 that were marked classified. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
The Justice Department took the legally and politically momentous step of lodging federal criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump, multiple people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, following a lengthy investigation of his handling of classified documents that he took with him upon leaving office and then obstructing the government’s efforts to reclaim them.
The indictment, filed in Federal District Court in Miami, is the first time in American history a former president has faced federal charges. It puts the nation in an extraordinary position, given Mr. Trump’s status not only as a onetime chief executive but also as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination to face President Biden, whose administration will now be seeking to convict his potential rival.
Trump is currently in Bedminster, New Jersey. A person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to discuss it publicly said Trump’s lawyers were contacted by prosecutors shortly before he announced on his Truth Social platform that he had been indicted.
Trump said he is due in court Tuesday afternoon in Miami.
