Federal prosecutors have informed former President Donald Trump that he is a target of a criminal investigation and will likely face imminent indictment in relation to alleged mishandling of classified documents. Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team have notified Trump’s legal representatives in recent days, outlining charges that include potential violations of 18 U.S. Code Chapter 37 Section 793, which prohibits unauthorized disclosure of national defense information.
Additional charges under consideration involve allegations of making false statements and obstruction of justice. It is worth noting that no former or current American president has ever been indicted in federal court.
The decision to bring charges ultimately lies with the Grand Jury, and if they decide to proceed, the legal battle is expected to reach the Supreme Court.
Earlier this year, Trump was indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a separate case related to the Stormy Daniels affair.
According to reports, Trump’s legal team has diligently prepared a robust defense strategy based on extensive legal research, anticipating potential charges from Special Counsel Smith. They intend to argue that as president, Trump possessed broad constitutional powers to handle and declassify documents from his presidency, including the ability to retain them upon leaving office, without public scrutiny.
Their defense will heavily rely on a previous U.S. District Court case in Washington, which occurred more than a decade ago and involved former President Bill Clinton. The court’s ruling in that case established that a president holds significant and mostly unchallengeable authority to determine the status of documents from their tenure, including the ability to retain them personally. Trump’s legal team will argue that any documents moved to his properties in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, and Bedminster, New Jersey, fall within this category.
A 2022 report from the American Bar Association seemed to support Trump’s contention, stating that existing guidelines endorse the broad authority of presidents to formally declassify most documents not protected by statute during their time in office.
🚨BREAKING🚨
Signed letter from President Trump on Jan 19, 2021, the day before he left office, declassifying “Crossfire Hurricane” docs showing Obama, Biden, the CIA, DOJ, and FBI spied on him
Now you know why they raided Mar a Lago
To steal back evidence of their crimes pic.twitter.com/PSiRXc9Mbx
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) June 7, 2023
BREAKING: Biden's DOJ tells Trump he will be indicted next week on charges of gathering, transmitting or losing' national defense docshttps://t.co/ii2K85wYBY
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 7, 2023
BREAKING: PREPARE FOR A MULTI-COUNT FEDERAL INDICTMENT OF PRESIDENT TRUMP – JULIE KELLY https://t.co/rgsRvovKGW
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) June 7, 2023