What are the charges against Donald Trump and what happens next?
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Donald TrumpPresident of the United States from 2017 to 2021
Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly retaining classified government documents and obstruction of justice, in what is another legal setback for the former president as he seeks to regain presidency next year.
The federal charges represent the biggest legal jeopardy so far for Mr Trump, coming less than three months after he was charged in New York with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Here’s a look at the charges and what the case means for Mr Trump.
What is Donald Trump accused of?
The Department of Justice has been investigating Mr Trump for retaining classified documents and other government records at his Mar-a-Lago resort after he left the White House in early 2021.
Records are required to be handed over to the National Archives when a president leaves office.
The former US president’s Florida estate was raided by the FBI in August 2022 and investigators have now recovered around 300 classified documents from the property.
The investigation has been led by Special Counsel Jack Smith, the former chief prosecutor of the Hague.
What are the charges?
Mr Trump has been charged with seven counts related to the mishandling of classified documents, including conspiracy to obstruct and willful retention of documents, sources have told The New York Times.
The indictment against Mr Trump remains sealed. But once the document is made public, it will outline the crimes that Mr Trump is accused of.
It marks the second time that Mr Trump, the first former president in US history to face criminal charges, has been indicted.
What does this mean for Trump?
This is significant in that it is the first time a former US president has faced federal criminal charges. The other criminal matters pending against Mr Trump are in state courts.
The indictment by the federal government carries grave legal consequences, including the possibility of prison if Mr Trump’s convicted.
One of the charges - the unauthorised retention of national security documents - theoretically means 10 years in prison for each count if convicted, though in practice other people prosecuted under the Espionage Act have been given significantly less than the maximum sentence.
The penalty for conspiracy meanwhile is up to five years per offence, while obstruction carries a penalty of up to 20 years for each count.
The justice department generally only chooses to bring cases they think they have a good chance of winning, which suggests the strength of the case against him.
That being said, in the days after he was indicted by a Manhattan court over alleged hush money payments he raised a reported $7 million within days, so it could work as a big election fundraiser.
What has Trump said?
He has claimed he is an “innocent man”, the investigation is a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” and has accused Joe Biden and the Democrats of election interference.
What sparked the investigation?
Officials with the National Archives and Records Administration reached out to representatives for Mr Trump in the spring of 2021 when they realised that important material from his time in office was missing from their collection.
According to the Presidential Records Act, White House documents are considered property of the US government and must be preserved.
A representative for Mr Trump told the National Archives in December 2021 that presidential records had been found at Mar-a-Lago. In January 2022, the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents from Trump’s Florida home
In May 2022, the FBI and Justice Department issued a subpoena for remaining classified documents in Mr Trump’s possession. Investigators collecting the records were given roughly three dozen documents and a sworn statement from Mr Trump’s lawyers attesting that the requested information had been returned.
But that assertion turned out to be false. With a search warrant, federal officials returned to Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and seized more than 33 boxes and containers totalling 11,000 documents from a storage room and an office, including 100 classified documents.
Who is Jack Smith?
Last year, US Attorney General Merrick Garland picked Mr Smith, a veteran war crimes prosecutor with a background in public corruption probes, to lead investigations into the presence of classified documents at Mr Trump’s Florida estate.
Mr Garland himself was selected by Democratic President Joe Biden, so Mr Smith’s appointment was a recognition of the politics involved in the investigation into a former president and current White House candidate.
Special counsels are appointed in cases in which the Justice Department perceives itself as having a conflict or where it’s deemed to be in the public interest to have someone outside the government come in and take responsibility for a matter.
What other charges does he face?
Capitol attack 6 Jan
Jack Smith is also investigating Mr Trump’s role in actions surrounding his loss in the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
Mr Trump had sought to prevent top aides, including his then-Vice President Mike Pence, from testifying in that probe being weighed by a separate DC grand jury. Mr Pence appeared before the grand jury in April after Mr Trump lost his legal challenge.
Attempt to overturn Georgia vote
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is investigating whether Mr Trump and others acted illegally to try to overturn his defeat in that state’s 2020 presidential vote. A charging decision is expected in September.
The criminal investigation focuses in part on a phone call Mr Trump made to fellow Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to “find” enough votes needed to overturn Trump’s loss in Georgia.
New York hush money case
In April, Mr Trump became the first former president in US history when he was indicted by a New York grand jury.
He pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records relating to hush money paid to a porn star before the 2016 election.
Sexual abuse and defamation
Last month a federal grand jury in Manhattan ordered Mr Trump to pay magazine columnist E Jean Carroll $5 million in damages after finding him liable for sexually abusing her in the 1990s and then defaming her by lying about it in 2022.
She is seeking to amend a separate lawsuit to demand a further $10 million after Mr Trump made public comments on CNN and his social media platform blasting the verdict, denying he had ever met her and accusing her of making up the allegations.
