Donald Trump indicted over 37 charges relating to mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate

Donald Trump has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate.

The former US President, 76, has reportedly been facing seven charges, including obstruction of justice, and is due in court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon (13 June), according to US media. However, upon the unsealing of the indictment documents, Trump actually faces a total of 37 charges relating to retaining classified information, obstructing justice and making false statements.

According to the full indictment document, the former president described a Pentagon "plan of attack" while also sharing a classified map related to a military operation. He is also accused of storing classified documents in a shower at his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida and told an aide to hide other files.

It makes Trump the first former US President to face federal criminal charges and is his second indictment. He has already been indicted in New York on 34 counts of falsifying business records and faces additional investigations in Washington and Atlanta that could lead to criminal charges.

Trump claimed the investigation is a “witch hunt” in a post on his Truth Social media platform. He wrote: “This is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America. We are a Country in serious and rapid Decline, but together we will Make America Great Again!”

The indictment comes following a months-long investigation by special counsel Jack Smith into whether Trump broke the law by holding onto hundreds of documents marked classified at his Palm Beach property Mar-a-Lago and whether he took steps to obstruct the government’s efforts to recover the records.

Prosecutors have said the former president took roughly 300 classified documents to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House, including around 100 which were seized by the FBI in August during a search of the home that underscored the gravity of the Justice Department’s investigation

The former president has insisted he was entitled to keep the classified documents when he left the White House and has claimed without evidence that he had declassified them.

Trump and his team have long seen the special counsel investigation as far more perilous than the New York matter — both politically and legally. It remains unclear what the immediate and long-term political consequences will be for him.

His first indictment spurred millions of dollars in contributions from angry supporters and failed to damage him in the polls as the 2024 presidential race ramps up. He is campaigning to make a return to the White House next year.

Trump’s legal troubles extend beyond the New York indictment and classified documents case as the special counsel has a separate probe underway.

This is focused on efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, while the district attorney in Georgia’s Fulton County is investigating Trump over alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election in that state.

Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers have asked a judge in New York to reduce the five million dollars awarded to writer E Jean Carroll in a civil suit to less than one million dollars. The payment was awarded by a jury in May for sexual abuse and defamation after she had claimed the former president raped her in a department store in 1996.