The rumor swelled for days. Donald Trump confirmed this on his Truth Social network on Thursday, June 8. The former US president is expected to appear in federal court in Miami, Florida on June 13 to be formally charged in the case of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence. It is an impressive mass of official notes (almost three hundred) drafted by various state departments, with varying degrees of confidentiality, that Donald Trump took with him when he left the White House in January 2021.
The former president would be indicted on seven counts, as confirmed by one of his lawyers, Jim Trusty. Second New York Times, would be accused of knowingly keeping top secret national defense documents, in violation of the Espionage Act – a crime punishable by ten years’ imprisonment – but also of perjury and criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice, which presupposes other participants. These legal details, critical to understanding Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s strategy, will likely only be confirmed on Tuesday.
Yes, it’s a seismic shock hitting the Republican primary favorite, who survived two congressional dismissal procedures when he was in the White House. Never before has a former American president been indicted by federal justice, which presumes to pass an exceptional test of credibility and resistance.
This case is much broader than the first criminal indictment decided against Donald Trump in New York on April 4 by Attorney Alvin Bragg for falsifying his group’s accounting records thirty-four times. With the 2016 presidential election approaching, the businessman bought the silence of several people, including porn actress Stormy Daniels, to avoid embarrassing revelations.
On May 9, also in New York, Donald Trump also entered presidential history through a shameful door. He was found civilly responsible for a sexual assault and was ordered to pay $5 million (€4.56 million) to his victim, columnist E. Jean Carroll; the latter accused him of raping her more than twenty-five years ago in a department store.
Unalterable popularity of Trump with his electoral base
But these two cases, involving the former real estate mogul’s toxic relationships with women, haven’t dented his popularity within his fervent base, the MAGA (Make America Great Again) world. Widely ahead in the polls for the Republican primaries, Donald Trump continues to feed the idea of a conspiracy against him, fomented by an alleged deep state and prosecutors in the service of the Democrats. “I am an innocent man, I have done nothing wrong”he repeated, as always, in a video released on Thursday evening.
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