Here’s what you need to know about the investigation and what happens now that Trump says he has been indicted
Former president Donald Trump said Thursday night that he has been indicted in connection with a criminal investigation into whether he took government secrets with him after he left the presidency and obstructed a subsequent investigation. Here’s what to know about the case.
The charges include illegal retention of government secrets, obstruction of justice and conspiracy, according to people familiar with the matter.
It’s illegal to mishandle classified information, which is supposed to be kept under lock and key in guarded government facilities. And it’s illegal to willfully steal or destroy any government document.
Trump also regularly flouted the Presidential Records Act, a Watergate-era law that says the presidents’ records are the governments’ property after the presidency ends. He ripped up official papers as president; one book even alleges he stuffed documents down the toilet at the White House.
But the coverup may be the bigger crime here; hence the obstruction-of-justice charge.
Investigators believe that after the government delivered its subpoena in May 2022, Trump told his staff to move some boxes out of the storage area where they were kept, including the day before FBI agents came to retrieve them. Investigators were also looking at whether Trump showed classified documents to other people, and whether he destroyed any government documents with the intent of hindering the investigation into what was at Mar-a-Lago. All of this could constitute obstruction of justice.
It’s not clear yet whether he’d face jail time if convicted or how a prosecution could affect his run for president.
