Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on criminal charges for the second time since he left office, this time by a federal grand jury.
The former commander-in-chief was indicted on 37 counts in connection with the investigation by the DOJ’s special counsel. After news of the indictment broke on Thursday, Trump supporters and other observers took to Twitter, calling out the indictment as “the stuff of a banana republic.”
Thirty-one of the felony counts in the indictment involve violations of the Espionage Act through “willful retention of classified records,” Politico reported. The charges are related to the FBI raid on Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago last August during an investigation of Trump’s handling of classified documents.
The other charges include obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy, and providing false statements, according to Trump’s attorney Jim Trusty, who spoke with CNN on Thursday.
Trusty said Trump’s legal team received a DOJ summons by email for the former president to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday at 3 p.m., according to CNN.
The federal indictment comes just months after Trump was indicted in April by the Manhattan district attorney for falsifying business records.
On Thursday evening, Trump issued a four-minute video addressing the federal indictment.
I AM AN INNOCENT MAN. THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION IS TOTALLY CORRUPT. THIS IS ELECTION INTERFERENCE & A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!! pic.twitter.com/kQxMDBBLTM
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) June 9, 2023
“It’s election interference at the highest level. There’s never been anything like what’s happened. I am an innocent man,” he said in the video.
After accusing Hillary Clinton and other unnamed Democrats of instigating the investigations against him, Trump said, “If they would devote their energies to honesty and integrity, it would be a lot better for our country.”
The judge assigned to the case is currently U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is a Trump appointee, according to ABC News. Judge Cannon was also the “special master” assigned to review the material the FBI took from Mar-a-Lago to ensure documents protected by privilege were not turned over to the federal government’s legal team.
The Dallas Express reached out to the DOJ for comment. A spokesperson for the DOJ replied Thursday evening after news broke of the indictment that the DOJ does “not have any information to provide at this time and are declining to comment.”