Donald Trump charged by federal justice, a first for a former American president

The rumor swelled for days. Donald Trump confirmed it on his Truth Social network, 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 imposing mass of official notes (nearly three hundred) written by several state departments, of varying degrees of confidentiality, that Donald Trump took with him when he left the White House in January 2021.

The ex-president would be indicted on seven counts, as confirmed by one of his lawyers, Jim Trusty. According to New York Times, he would be accused of knowingly keeping top secret national defense documents, in violation of the Espionage Act – a crime punishable by ten years in prison – but also of perjury and conspiracy to obstruct justice, which presupposes other participants. These legal details, crucial to understanding the strategy adopted by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, will probably only be confirmed on Tuesday.

Already, it is a seismic shock hitting the favorite of the Republican primaries. Never before has a former American president been indicted by federal justice, which assumes to pass an exceptional test of credibility and resistance.

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This case is much larger than the first criminal indictment decided against Donald Trump in New York, on April 4, by prosecutor Alvin Bragg, for having falsified the accounting documents of his group thirty-four times. As the 2016 presidential election approached, the entrepreneur bought the silence of several people, including porn actress Stormy Daniels, to prevent embarrassing revelations.

On May 9, still in New York, Donald Trump also entered presidential history through a shameful door. He was found civilly liable for a sexual assault and ordered to pay 5 million dollars (4.56 million euros) to his victim, columnist E. Jean Carroll; the latter accused him of having raped her more than twenty-five years ago in a department store.

Unalterable popularity of Trump with his electoral base

But these two cases, concerning the toxic relationships between the former real estate mogul and women, did not dent his popularity within his fervent base, the MAGA (Make America Great Again) world. Largely ahead in the polls for the Republican primaries, Donald Trump continues to fuel the idea of ​​a conspiracy against him, fomented by a supposed deep state and magistrates in the service of the Democrats. “I am an innocent man, I have done nothing wrong”he repeated, as always, in a video released Thursday evening.

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