The Department of Justice indicted former President Donald Trump on Thursday on charges of mishandling classified documents and related offenses.
ABC News reported that the 45th president has been issued a summons to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.
“There appears to be at least seven counts here. This ranges from everything from the willful retention of national defense information to conspiracy to a scheme to conceal to false statements and representations,” ABC’s Katherine Faulders reported.
Trump responded on Truth Social, “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.”
“I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States,” he added. “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!”
The move comes almost 10 months after FBI agents raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, and seized boxes of documents.
The Associated Press reported that of the 11,000 documents removed from the property, roughly 100 of them had classified markings on them.
Trump said at the time that the raid was entirely unnecessary because he was willing to turn over any documents the National Archives wanted and that as president he had the authority to unilaterally declassify any document he had in his possession.
According to The Hill, special counsel Jack Smith had for months been calling witnesses before a Washington, D.C., federal grand jury looking into the matter, but in recent weeks a handful of witnesses had been called before a federal grand jury convened in Florida.
Trump also recently received a target letter from Smith’s office informing him that he is the subject of an investigation, ABC News reported.
“The point of a target letter is to put the subject on notice that they are facing the prospect of indictment,” the news outlet said.
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz — who was previously solicitor general of Texas — shared how he thinks the DOJ is trying to differentiate the classified documents cases involving Trump and Biden.
“I think [Attorney General] Merrick Garland planned to indict President Trump over classified documents. I think he was giddy with excitement over indicting President Trump,” Cruz told Fox Business before news of the indictment broke on Thursday.
“And then, miracle upon miracles, it became public that Joe Biden had classified documents stuck just about everywhere, including literally in his garage next to his Corvette. And that suddenly put Merrick Garland in a difficult position legally, but also politically,” Cruz continued.
He predicted that it would be too much of a double standard to indict Trump and not Biden on documents handling charges alone, so the DOJ would focus on related charges such as obstruction.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
