Trump says he’s been indicted in documents case. Expected in Miami court Tuesday

Former President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he has been indicted on charges of illegally storing classified documents at his residence in Palm Beach after removing them from the White House and that he must make his first appearance in Miami federal court on Tuesday.

Trump, 76, who made the announcement on his social media platform, condemned the Justice Department and Biden Administration for bringing the charges against him. The indictment, returned by a Miami federal grand jury, has not been unsealed.

“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

News of Trump’s indictment capped days of increasing speculation on social media about whether special counsel Jack Smith would move to file such unprecedented charges against a former president. According to multiple news reports, Smith’s team had been interviewing witnesses and reviewing evidence through two separate grand juries, one impaneled for months in the nation’s capital and another more recently in Miami.

READ MORE: As decision on Trump case neared, media swarms to Miami’s federal courthouse

The indictment, which is likely to charge the former president with illegally possessing classified records, violating the Espionage Act and obstructing justice, was returned by grand jurors sitting in Miami. The historic indictment is sure to be a politically controversial and intensely covered prosecution in a federal courtroom not far from Trump’s palatial home. In the days leading up the indictment, his lawyers had met with prosecutors and Trump had taken to his own social media network to repeat claims that he has been treated unfairly by federal investigators.

The case, however, stems from a drawn-out dispute over accusations that the former president had mishandled classified records. Months after his departure, Trump engaged in a confrontation with the National Archives and then the FBI over releasing the classified documents — including material about a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities and military defenses — leading to his arrest on charges of possessing the top secret papers at his private club and estate and withholding them from investigators.

Trump is expected to surrender to authorities for his first appearance in Miami federal court on Tuesday, when issues of his legal representation, bond and arraignment would be addressed before Magistrate Bruce Reinhart. He is the same judge who found probable cause of a crime authorizing the FBI to search Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022.

READ MORE: What to know after Trump says he’s indicted — again. This time, in classified docs probe

In the run-up to the indictment, multiple news outlets reported that Trump’s lawyers met with Justice Department officials on Monday, as the decision neared on whether to bring criminal charges. His lawyers had requested a meeting with Attorney General Merrick Garland to raise concerns alleging prosecutorial misconduct and overreach by the team led by the special counsel, who was appointed by Garland. It was not clear what was discussed during the meeting, which was attended by Smith but not Garland.

Afterward, Trump, in a social media post and talk radio interview, signaled that he was prepared for the possibility that he would be charged and reiterated his attacks on the investigation.

For Trump, who is running in the 2024 presidential election, the new indictment marks the first time that he has been charged in federal court but the second time he he has been charged with a crime. In April, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office charged the former president with a series of fraud-related offenses stemming from paying hush money totaling $130,000 to a porn actress at the height of the 2016 election to prevent her from going public about their alleged sexual encounter.

In the latest case, the Justice Department had already disclosed in a court filing that during last summer’s search of Trump’s home, teams of agents seized 33 boxes, containers or other items of evidence containing more than 100 classified records, including “classified information at the highest levels.”

READ MORE: From Florida to California, see what officials are saying after Trump’s federal indictment

In the Mar-a-Lago’s storage room alone, FBI agents found 76 documents bearing “classification markings.” But in addition, three classified documents located in the desks of the former president’s home office were also seized, the filing said.

The FBI noted that its agents had recovered twice as many documents with classified markings as the former president’s lawyers and other representatives had produced that June in response to a grand jury subpoena, casting “doubt on the extent of cooperation in this matter.”

Before the FBI raid, Trump and his lawyers had turned over the following: “38 unique documents bearing classification markings, including 5 documents marked as CONFIDENTIAL, 16 documents marked as SECRET, and 17 documents marked as TOP SECRET,” according to the Justice Department prosecutors’ filing.

Prosecutors further said that the former president and his lawyers “offered no explanation as to why boxes of government records, including 38 documents with classification markings, remained at [Mar-a-Lago] nearly five months” after they had initially turned over 15 boxes with classified documents to the National Archives in January following months of inquiries about returning them.

Trump himself had voluntarily turned over those classified documents — mixed among magazines, newspapers, photos, letters, notes and other miscellaneous material — in the 15 boxes sent to the National Archives in January 2022 after the federal agency responsible for holding presidential and government documents demanded that the former president return his records to Washington.

In the days before the indictment was returned, a trio of Trump attorneys — James Trusty, John Rowley and Lindsey Halligan — met with the special prosecutor, Smith, at the Justice Department headquarters in Washington for almost two hours and upon their exit did not respond to reporters’ questions.

After the meeting ended, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform in capital letters: “How can DOJ possibly charge me, who did nothing wrong” when no other presidents have been charged. He referenced the investigation into his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, which ended without criminal charges, and a separate ongoing probe into the presence of classified documents at an office and home of President Joe Biden.

Trump characterized it as a “witch hunt.”