Trump documents: A timeline on how we got from a raid to an indictment

PALM BEACH — Calling it a "dark day," former President Donald Trump said Thursday evening that he has been "indicted" and has been "summoned to appear" in federal court in Miami next Tuesday.

The revelation came in a trio of posts on his Truth Social platform just after 7 p.m. Trump's missives said the source of the indictment is the more-than-yearlong investigation and legal battles into his possession of classified and other documents after leaving the presidency. In the postings, Trump called the matter the "Boxes Hoax."

Justice Department officials have not commented, nor confirmed or made public any charging documents.

But in addition to Trump's social media posts, users on Twitter have circulated an emailed statement by the former president that is also a fundraising ask.

"It is a DARK DAY for the United States of America," Trump wrote in that note as well as in his Truth Social posts and a media alert that also went out Thursday evening.

But concern about his handling of government papers and secrets predated the initial dispute over the boxes of records in his possession more than a year ago. The objections go as far back as mid-2018 while Trump was still president.

Here is a timeline of the Trump documents case explaining how we got here.

June 2018: Why 'some paperwork coming back' from Mar-a-Lago needed sorting and taping

Politico reports that a team of federal employees equipped with rolls of clear tape frequently engage in a humpty-dumpty task of putting back together pieces of documents that Trump tore up, in violation of the Presidential Records Act. One of the employees charged with the duty, Solomon Lartey, tells The Palm Beach Post that he remembers "some paperwork coming back from Florida" needing to be pieced back together.

Trump papers: Who tapes together papers Trump rips up at Mar-a-Lago?

February 2022: Trump admits he has documents. National Archives demands them back.

Trump acknowledges that he kept boxes of "letters, records, newspapers, magazines, and various articles" from his one-term presidency. This begins a firestorm as the National Archives and Records Administration states that "as required by the Presidential Records Act the records should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021," the NARA statement said. But Trump insists he kept the items after "collaborative and respectful discussions." In a bizarre twist, Trump also denies "flushing" torn pieces of documents down a toilet.

David Ferriero, archivist of the United States, says the documents improperly kept at Mar-a-Lago contained 15 boxes with "items marked as classified national security information." Ferriero added that not all of Trump's presidential materials are accounted for and that U.S. archivists believe "certain social media records" were not "captured and preserved by the Trump Administration." And he said that NARA staff has also "learned that some White House staff conducted official business using non-official electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts," as required by law.

August 2022: An unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago yields trove of papers, some classified, some not

FBI agents search Trump's Mar-a-Lago club and seize documents and files in an unprecedented raid on a former president's property. In a statement, Trump blasted the search of his home, which he said was "under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents." Trump added that agents "broke" into his safe.

The case places a heat lamp on U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who signed the FBI search warrant on Mar-a-Lago. His biography and contact information are removed from the website of the U.S. District of Court for the Southern District of Florida. Officials don't explain why such unusual steps were taken, but Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said it was in response to threats Reinhart has received.

The Post joins other news organizations filing court papers to ensure the entire warrant, and not just parts of it, are available to the public given the unprecedented nature of the investigation. A heavily redacted search affidavit is released at month's end. It reveals federal officials discovered 184 classified documents in a previous search of the Palm Beach home that is also a private club.

Trump documents: Former President Trump says FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach

Trump raid: Why did the FBI search Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate? 5 potential explanations

September 2022: Judge picked by Trump grants his wish. But special master raises questions.

Judge Aileen Cannon, a federal judge Trump appointed in 2020, grants the former president's request that she appoint a special master to vet all the material seized from Mar-a-Lago for attorney-client privilege and executive privilege. She barred law-enforcement agencies from using any of the documents for criminal investigative purposes until that work was done.

The special master appointed to review the case, Raymond Dearie, a veteran Brooklyn judge, states he intends to push briskly though the review process and appeared skeptical of the Trump legal team's reluctance to say whether it believed the records had been declassified.

Trump, who was spending the summer in New Jersey, returns to Mar-a-Lago, which he claims was "ransacked" and "will never be the same."

A federal appeals court hands Trump a legal defeat in allowing the Justice Department to resume its use of classified records seized from the former president's Florida estate as part of its criminal investigation. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeal for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta is seen as a major victory for federal investigators by allowing them to continue scrutinizing the documents as they consider whether to bring criminal charges.

Trump claims presidential powers allowed him to declassify virtually any document by simply "thinking about it." The assertion is widely ridiculed. Dearie, the special master, dismissed another Trump claim, that federal agents had planted some of the records when they searched Mar-a-Lago.

October 2022: Trump turns to SCOTUS

Trump's lawyers seek to thwart the adverse appeals court ruling by asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the decision.

November 2022: Attorney general names special counsel

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland names special counsel Jack Smith to oversee the investigation into Trump's possession of classified and other documents, files and records.

December 2022: Other files found in West Palm Beach storage unit

Attorneys representing Trump say government records were also found in a storage unit in West Palm Beach.

January 2023: Turns out Biden, Pence also kept government papers

Lawyers reveal they also found government documents in President Joe Biden's home. The files were from his time as vice president, from 2009 to 2017. Government files are also found at former Vice President Mike Pence's residence.

February 2023: Why historian insists the 'Trump story is different'

Ahead of a speaking engagement in Boca Raton, Timothy Naftali, who has written books about former President George W. Bush and the Cuban Missile Crisis, said the 1978 Presidential Records Act says Trump as well as ex-vice presidents Joe Biden and Mike Pence should not have had classified materials in their possession and dwellings. But Naftali said the number of documents both as vice president kept appear to have been much smaller than Trump's. And, he said, both Biden and Pence turned over the documents. Trump kept them despite repeated demands by the National Archives for their return. "The Trump story is different," said Naftali. "There's a big difference between inadvertence and intention."

March 2023: Mar-a-Lago workers reportedly subpoenaed

Reports say that workers at Mar-a-Lago were subpoenaed in the investigation into his keeping of classified documents at the property. The club employs all sorts of people in a variety of occupations, including foreign workers in blue-collar, hospitality-type of jobs such as restaurant attendees and housekeepers.

Trump workers: Since Trump won the presidency, Mar-a-Lago was always a national security red flag

April 2023: Trump charged with felonies. But not over documents.

Amid speculation of potential charges in the documents case, Trump is arraigned in a New York courtroom after being charged with felonies in relation to an alleged hush-money payment to a porn star in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election.

May 2023: A report said Trump showed off documents

The Washington Post reports that federal prosecutors have obtained evidence that Trump showed classified documents to other people.

June 2023: Audio tape bombshell?

CNN reports federal investigators have an audio recording Trump in a 2021 meeting acknowledging he possessed a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran.

On Monday, Trump's lawyers met with Justice Department prosecutors, including special counsel Smith. That fueled speculation an indictment was imminent. The document itself has not been released, and Justice officials have not commented.

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at the Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump indictment documents: A look at the Mar-a-Lago investigation