Former US president Donald Trump has said that he has been indicted in the probe over his handling of classified documents after leaving the office.
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social as he broke what would be bombshell news that he has been charged criminally for the second time.
No immediate confirmation was forthcoming from the Department of Justice.
Trump said in his post that he has been summoned to a federal courthouse in Miami.
“I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States,” he wrote.
Trump has declared that he would run for president again in US Presidential Election 2024. He is currently the frontrunner among presidential hopefuls who are vying to get Republican Party nomination.
Trump’s announcement came a day after US media said federal prosecutors have informed the former president’s lawyers that he is the target of the probe into his handling of classified documents.
Trump who has been first US president to have been impeached twice while in office also has the tag of first former of sitting president to be charged with a crime. This was over election-eve hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels who said she had an affair with him. That indictment came in March.
The classified documents probe
US Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith who has been looking into cache of secret documents which were stored by Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence even after leaving the presidential office.
In August last year, the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago and carted away about 11,000 documents. Trump had spent months resisting efforts by the authorities to recover the documents. This means that Trump can also face obstruction-of-justice charges.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
There is a possibility that he will be indicted in two more cases. These have to do with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and his role in inciting attack on US Capitol building in 2021.
(With inputs from agencies)
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