WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP) : Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on federal charges in an investigation into his handling of classified documents, according to an indictment unsealed on Friday, June 9. Trump has become the first former US President to be indicted for a federal crime.

Trump said on his social platform Truth Social that prosecutors had notified his attorneys of indictment on seven criminal counts related to his treatment of sensitive government material that he took with him when he left the White House in January 2021, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The 49-page charging document, alleging that Mr. Trump not only intentionally possessed classified documents but also cavalierly and boastfully showed them off to visitors, is startling in scope and in the breadth of allegations. The indictment is built on Mr. Trump’s own words and actions as recounted to prosecutors by lawyers, close aides and other witnesses, with prosecutors even using against Mr. Trump his own words as a candidate and president professing to respect and know procedures related to the handling of classified information.

The indictment includes 37 counts — 31 of which pertain to the willful retention of national defense information, with the balance relating to alleged conspiracy, obstruction and false statements —that taken together could result in a yearslong prison sentence.

The case adds to deepening legal jeopardy for Mr. Trump, who has already been indicted in New York and faces additional investigations in Washington and Atlanta that also could lead to criminal charges. But among the various investigations he has faced, legal experts — as well as Mr. Trump’s own aides — had long seen the Mar-a-Lago probe as the most perilous threat and the one most ripe for prosecution. Campaign aides had been bracing for the fallout since Mr. Mr. Trump’s attorneys were notified that he was the target of the investigation, assuming it was not a matter of if charges would be brought, but when.

Enumerating the defense and foreign intelligence-related information included in the documents, prosecutors wrote that their “unauthorized disclosure … could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.”

Investigators had seized a cache of 13,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, nearly a year ago. Of those, 100 were marked as classified.

“I am an innocent man!” Trump wrote in all caps on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, June 8, after announcing that he had been indicted. It is the second criminal case for Trump and the first federal case against him. He is due to go on trial in New York next March in a state case stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star. The indictment of Trump, who has repeatedly denied any allegations of impropriety, is unprecedented for a former president.

(Source: Agencies)