Washington The footage shows dozens of file boxes stacked on top of each other, under chandeliers and on marble floors. In the photos they look like the prey of a gang of gangsters. However, they were found in Donald Trump’s Florida home, in a ballroom, in a storage room and in a bathroom next to a toilet.
The photos were released by the US Department of Justice on Friday as part of a broader indictment against the ex-president. Trump is scheduled to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday. It is the first time a former president has faced federal criminal charges.
Trump had already been charged at the state level in New York in April. At that time, however, it was about hush money payments to a porn star. However, the hearing on this matter is only scheduled for March 2024.
Trump is used to scandals: more than a dozen women accuse him of sexual assault. As president, he survived two impeachment trials. But in the end it could be the affair about secret government documents that will be his undoing.
A total of seven categories of offenses are listed and he is charged with 37 crimes. “Read the indictment,” Special Counsel Jack Smith told US citizens on Friday, “so that you understand the seriousness of the alleged crimes.”
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Among other things, Trump is accused of intentionally storing national defense information. This point falls under the US espionage law and can be punished with up to twenty years imprisonment.
The federal police FBI had searched Trump’s resort in Mar-a-Lago in Florida in August and confiscated numerous classified documents, some with the highest classification level. Because Trump kept the documents in his private home long after he left the presidency, he could have committed a criminal offense.
The US judiciary accuses the former president of having obstructed the investigation. Trump is said to have instructed his lawyers to conceal the existence of the document boxes. A June 2020 document seized from Trump contained information on another country’s nuclear capabilities. He is said to have shared this information with people he only knew briefly.
Trump has always benefited from legal disputes
The indictment is the most serious for Trump so far – mainly because of the high possible sentence. Another question, however, is whether it will harm him politically. The Republican presidential hopeful is determined to use the impeachment as a mobilizing factor in his campaign, and could do so again this time.
The criminal trial in Manhattan had already briefly boosted donations to Trump. Trump is also attracting a lot of attention with the new indictment. Last week three Republicans – Mike Pence, Chris Christie and Doug Burgum – entered the race for their party’s nomination for the presidential nomination at once. But the big reports in the US media revolved around just one person: Donald Trump.
US judiciary indicts Donald Trump on 37 counts
“So far, Trump has benefited from every major legal measure against him,” explains party expert Matthew Continetti of the Washington think tank American Enterprise Institute. Trump is currently the undisputed favorite for the Republican presidential nomination.
And yet Continetti does not consider Trump untouchable. “There are some Republican candidates who think Trump won’t make it to the finish line,” he says. Not only because of the indictments, but also because of his age or his health, he could still fail as a presidential candidate.
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“They assume that Trump’s campaign is almost a Potemkin candidacy and just wait for their chance.” There are now ten Republican candidates who are challenging the former president.
Only tentative criticism from the ranks of the Republicans
In the polls, Trump is currently leading the field of Republican candidates. The criticism from his party is correspondingly restrained. Only a few Republicans have criticized the ex-president in recent days.
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said the allegations are “very serious” and “cannot be easily dismissed.” “Mishandling classified information is a criminal offense because it can reveal national secrets, as well as the sources and methods by which they were obtained.”
The Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, however, accused the US Department of Justice of partisan motivation. The indictment will “shake the nation” because it is fundamentally unjust and wants to hit Trump in the election campaign.
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In fact, there has never been a similar political situation in the United States. Should Trump actually become the top candidate for the Republicans in the 2024 presidential election, he would be a challenger to incumbent US President Joe Biden. And his government, specifically the federal Department of Justice, is pursuing Biden’s potential rival with the current indictment – another federal indictment against Trump, which will deal with his role in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, is already in the works.
Biden is noticeably trying to create distance between himself and the charges against Trump. Over the weekend, he and his press team responded evasively to any questions about it, referring to the Justice Department. “Not once, not once, have I suggested to the Justice Department what it should or should not do, whether or not it should press charges. I’ll be honest,” Biden said Thursday.
Is classified information safe in the US?
The US Department of Justice has also opened a criminal investigation into Biden, investigating whether the current US President unlawfully retained government records from his time as Vice President of Barack Obama. However, the circumstances of both cases can hardly be compared with each other. After secret government documents were found in Biden’s office and home, his attorneys notified authorities and quickly arranged for their surrender. Trump apparently tried to hide the file boxes for months.
54-year-old special counsel Jack Smith, who used to hunt down war criminals at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, made his first public appearance on Friday. He accused Trump of risking US national security. “Anyone who compromises our laws protecting sensitive information is endangering our country,” Smith said.
In fact, since the Trump indictment, allies like the European Union have been wondering whether classified information exchanged as part of intelligence cooperation is still safe in the United States.
The special counsel accuses Donald Trump of serious crimes.
(Photo: AP)
Smith called for Trump not to be prejudiced and referred to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Smith went on to say that he had requested an expedited trial. Whether and when Trump will be convicted is relevant on several levels: As early as February next year, the first primary states will vote on who should become the Republican presidential candidate.
Trump himself described the charges as “ridiculous,” baseless, and one of the most horrific abuses of power in US history during a campaign appearance in Columbus, Georgia.
“This is a political contract killing,” he railed. Biden is trying to “jail his leading political competitor,” Trump claimed, announcing, “We will fight it like no one has fought before.” He will never back down, be swayed, or stop fighting, the ex cried -President to the cheers of his supporters.
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