On January 20, 2021 former president Donald Trump moved presidential records from the White House into his personal residence. Today, Trump brings himself to face ninety-one felony charges which include forty from possessing classified documents and impeding their retrieval. In addition, Trump holds thirteen felony counts in Georgia for interfering with the federal election, and a total of thirty-four in relation with hush money being paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. The indictment of Donald Trump has made headlines for months, but with new updates seemingly every day it is easy to get lost in drastic headlines and the potential for misinformation.
Trump’s most recent forty charges began when he brought presidential documents to his Florida residence after his term as president. These documents are considered classified, and property of the United States government. After Trump allegedly showed these documents to civilians the National Archive required that Trump return the document and he refused. In December of 2021, Trump’s representatives announced that they plan to return the documents, and nearly a month later they did.
After the documents were turned in, they were found to contain confidential, secret, and top secret documents which prompts the U.S. archives to report their findings to the Justice department. After an F.B.I. investigation and careful consideration, a grand jury investigation commence on April 24th 2023.
At the beginning of the investigation Trump was subpoenaed which he did not comply to, saying: “I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes.” The boxes confiscated by the National Archives had already been provided to the Justice department. In this time period thirty eight other classified and secret documents were found in Trump’s home. Potentially incriminating him further. After several false statements were made about Trump and his lawyers’ knowledge of the documents, the F.B.I. searched Trump’s residence and seized over one hundred classified documents.
Trump was then publicly indicted, and the story became what we know it to be today. Soon after he was charged with thirty seven felony counts in relation to the documents. Since his indictment Trumpbecome the only U.S. president to have a mugshot released and is on track to become the first U.S. president to be charged with a crime.