Federal prosecutors have notified President Donald Trump that he is a criminal target and will be indicted “imminently” as part of a probe into alleged classified documents handling.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutorial team informed Trump’s legal team in recent days that the charges against the 45th president include a violation of 18 U.S. Code Chapter 37 Section 793 that outlaws the “gathering, transmitting or losing” of national defense information.
Other charges being considered involve alleged false statements and obstruction of justice.
No prior or sitting American president has ever been indicted in federal court.
The Grand Jury will decide whether to bring charges and if they accept the prosecutor’s case the legal battle will surely end up in the Supreme Court.
Trump was indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg earlier this year.
Bragg’s politically motivates charges stem from the Stormy Daniels case.
🚨BREAKING🚨
Signed letter from President Trump on Jan 19, 2021, the day before he left office, declassifying “Crossfire Hurricane” docs showing Obama, Biden, the CIA, DOJ, and FBI spied on him
Now you know why they raided Mar a Lago
To steal back evidence of their crimes pic.twitter.com/PSiRXc9Mbx
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) June 7, 2023
BREAKING: Biden’s DOJ tells Trump he will be indicted next week on charges of gathering, transmitting or losing’ national defense docshttps://t.co/ii2K85wYBY
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 7, 2023
BREAKING: PREPARE FOR A MULTI-COUNT FEDERAL INDICTMENT OF PRESIDENT TRUMP – JULIE KELLY https://t.co/rgsRvovKGW
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) June 7, 2023
According to Just The News:
Trump’s lawyers have prepared a robust defense based on months of legal research, anticipating Smith might pursue charges.
Trump’s lawyers are prepared to argue that a president had broad powers under the Constitution to keep documents or declassify without any fanfare documents from his presidency and take them with him upon leaving office.
They will rely heavily on a U.S. District Court case in Washington more than a decade ago involving former President Bill Clinton that concluded a president had broad and mostly unchallengeable power to determine which documents from his presidency can be kept personally and that any documents moved to Trump’s homes in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., and Bedminster, N.J., fall under that category.
An American Bar Association report in 2022 seemed to agree with Trump’s assertion that “guidelines support his contention that presidents have broad authority to formally declassify most documents that are not statutorily protected, while they are in office.”
