MIAMI – Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury after a months-long investigation into his handling of classified documents after leaving office, sources told ABC News.
The former president is expected to appear in federal court in Miami to be arraigned on charges Tuesday.
Trump himself announced the summons in a post on his Truth Social platform, saying that his lawyers informed him of the news.
Details of the indictment were not immediately available. The Justice Department has yet to confirm the indictment.
This is the second time that Trump has been indicted since leaving office. The first was in April when the Manhattan District Attorney charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
“I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 p.m. I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election.”
This comes a day after Trump’s former top aide, Taylor Budowich, appeared Wednesday in Miami at the federal courthouse for testimony to a grand jury investigating potential classified-document mishandling and obstruction at the ex-president’s Palm Beach property.
ABC News reported that there appear to be at least seven counts, ranging from everything from the willful retention of national defense information to conspiracy to a scheme to conceal to false statements and representations.
The FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August of 2022 as part of an investigation into his taking classified records from the White House and storing them at his Florida residence. Investigators seized more than 100 documents with classified markings during the search, including 43 folders from the former president’s office at the estate, which were marked classified but were empty.
Trump immediately sent out an email from his Donald J. Trump for President account on Thursday after his post on his social media platform, which read:
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, D.C., with even more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is ‘secured’ by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time.
“I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM. I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election. I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!
“This is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America. We are a Country in serious and rapid Decline, but together we will Make America Great Again!”
The investigation into Trump’s handling of the documents has focused not only on the possession of classified documents, including at the top-secret level, but also on the refusal of Trump to return the records when asked, as well as possible obstruction.