Indictment
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Donald Trump has been officially indicted by the Department of Justice on seven charges relating to the mishandling of classified government documents.
On Thursday evening (June 8th), news broke that Trump would be the first American president ever to be indicted by a grand jury on federal charges related to his mishandling of classified documents and attempts to block their retrieval. Observers had noted that an indictment was forthcoming after his legal team met with Special Counsel Jack Smith and other Department of Justice officials on Monday (June 5th) in Miami, Florida.
The exact details of the charges have not been disclosed as the indictment is still sealed, but a lawyer for Trump has said that they include obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy, and false statements. The lawyer, Jim Trusty, did say that one of those charges is filed under the Espionage Act. Trump is expected to appear in federal court in Miami next Tuesday.
News reports have also detailed how Jack Smith has led an aggressive and highly intricate probe into Trump’s actions, with two grand juries in Miami and Washington, D.C. being convened as well as receiving testimony from former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. A CNN report of a possible attempt to damage classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate by draining a swimming pool has also weighed heavily in the case.
The former president is currently facing 30 counts of business fraud in New York related to improper payments meant to cover up an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. He is also under investigation in the state of Georgia due to allegations of his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election by attempting to coerce state officials to award him the electoral college results.
Trump shared the news with followers on his TruthSocial social media platform. “I have been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM,” he wrote. “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!”
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Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday (March 30) on charges stemming from 2016 payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to silence claims of extramarital sexual encounters.
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The historic event marks the first criminal case against a former U.S. president. The news comes as Trump is also facing investigations into his alleged involvement in 2020 election interference by his supporters and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in addition to his handling of classified documents after he was no longer in office.
“He did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this this political prosecution in Court,” lawyers Susan Necheles and Joseph Tacopina said in a statement, according to Associated Press.
At press time, the New York grand jury’s exact charges toward Trump are unknown.
In late 2016, amid Trump’s presidential campaign, his former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her silent about an incident a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity gold tournament. Earlier that year, Cohen had also arranged for the National Enquirer‘s publisher to pay McDougal $150,000 to stop her story of a Trump affair. Trump was implicated in court filings as knowing of the arrangements.
Trump reacted to the indictment in a statement, calling the situation “Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” as well as a “Witch-Hunt” led by “Radical Left Democrats.”
“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable — indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference,” he wrote.
A number of stars have taken to social media to react to the news, including Questlove, Jason Isbell and more. See below.
START SPREADIN THE NEWWWWWSSSSS— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) March 30, 2023
Trump has been indicted. Game on. New precedent has been set✔️— John Rich🇺🇸 (@johnrich) March 30, 2023
Trump Indicted! First among many!— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) March 30, 2023
With Trump facing arraignment, I am thankful federal law enforcement under Merrick Garland arrested over 1,000 insurrectionists from Jan 6, sending a strong signal that violent, anti-government protests from MAGA and militias will not be tolerated.— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) March 30, 2023
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Political allies of former President Donald Trump have begun attacking New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg by making false claims about his ties to political donor George Soros.
As the former president is facing an indictment from a grand jury convened by the Manhattan District Attorney, Republican politicians have initiated a stream of attacks following his lead against Bragg on social media. In a post on his TruthSocial network on Monday (March 20th), he wrote: “Alvin Bragg received in EXCESS OF ONE MILLION DOLLARS from the Radical Left Enemy of ‘TRUMP,’ George Soros.”
The attack was echoed by other right-wingers such as J.D. Vance, the freshman senator from Ohio who has been an ardent Trump supporter over the past year despite prior misgivings. Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio has expressed a desire to have Bragg testify before a House committee about the investigation.
There is a link between the district attorney and Soros, who has been attacked for years by right-wing politicians and conspiracy theorists for his donations to Democratic candidates with many noting these attacks based on antisemitism as the Hungarian-born billionaire is Jewish. But an examination of campaign records shows no impropriety.
The connection dates back to when Bragg first campaigned to be district attorney. He was endorsed by the progressive criminal justice group Color of Change in 2021. The group intended to spend $1 million on voter turnout efforts for him and did not directly contribute to his campaign. Soros would donate that amount to Color of Change in May of that year, one of a number of donations that he made personally and through his Democracy PAC political action committee. Color of Change would ultimately spend $500,000 in contributions backing Bragg’s campaign, 11 percent of its $4.6 million spent during that campaign year.
“George Soros and Alvin Bragg have never met in person or spoken by telephone, email, Zoom, etc.,” Mr. Vachon said. “There has been no contact between the two.” It is noted that his son, Jonathan, and his wife did donate $20,000 to Bragg’s campaign directly before Bragg won the Democratic primary for the D.A.’s office in 2021.
Despite those facts, GOP politicians aren’t letting up in their attacks on Bragg. Color of Change President Rashad Robinson highlighted the racism and anti-semitism behind those smears in a thread on his Twitter account. “Make no mistake, over the next couple of days as more news about potential consequences for Trump circulates, we will see a flood of anti-Black and anti-Semitic attacks from the former President and his supporters and enablers,” he wrote last weekend.