Donald Trump Indicted in Classified Documents Case

WASHINGTON—Donald Trump said he has been indicted by a federal grand jury in the investigation into his handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, marking the first time in history that the U.S. Justice Department has criminally charged a former president.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said his lawyers had been informed of his indictment in connection with what he called the “Boxes Hoax.” Declaring his innocence, Trump said he had been summoned to appear Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Miami.

“I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election,” Trump said, adding, “I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!”
 

 
The Justice Department is investigating how classified documents got to the home of former President Trump and the home and personal office of President Biden. Here’s how documents are supposed to be handled during a transition. Illustration: Adele Morgan

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People familiar with the matter confirmed that a grand jury had returned an indictment against the former president on Thursday.

A spokesman for special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Justice Department’s investigation of the handling of Mar-a-Lago documents, declined to comment.

The federal charges deepen Trump’s legal peril just as the 2024 presidential raceheats up, with Trump as the front-runner for the Republican nomination. He already faces criminal charges in New York stemming from the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into his role in a hush-money payment to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election. 

A local prosecutor in Georgia, meanwhile, said she plans to present criminal charges in August related to efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election there. Trump has denied wrongdoing in all three matters, and accused prosecutors of pursuing him for political reasons. 

The federal indictment is the first to emanate from a probe by Smith, the former war-crimes and public-corruption prosecutor that Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed to take over two inquiries related to Trump after Trump in November announced another bid for the White House. 

In addition to the documents inquiry, Smith’s team is pursuing a separate investigation into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss, and how those efforts related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Smith’s team has issued subpoenas and obtained grand jury testimony in recent weeks indicating that the inquiry is focused on Trump’s fundraising after the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the investigation.

While the Jan. 6 investigation has been under way for more than two years, the documents probe dates to early 2022, when the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents and other items from Mar-a-Lago that should have been transferred from the White House, and found they contained more than 100 classified records. The Justice Department sought to recover all additional classified documents that might still be at the Florida property through a subpoena. After a Trump representative said the former president had turned over the remaining documents, the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained evidence that more such papers were on the premises, and agents last August executed an extraordinary search warrant and recovered hundreds more. 
 

Over ensuing months, Smith’s team interviewed nearly every employee at Trump’s Florida home as part of the documents probe, from top political aides to maids and maintenance staff, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In recent months, Smith’s team has homed in on several key pieces of evidence, including an audio recording in which Trump acknowledged he kept a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, and extensive notes from one of his lawyers about the investigation, people familiar with the matter have said. 

Trump’s lawyers met with Justice Department officials on June 5 to try to head off an indictment. 

The case comes as a separate special counsel is examining how and why classified documents dating to President Biden’s time as vice president were found at his home and office. The Justice Department closed a third inquiry on June 1 into similar documents found at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home.

Write to Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com, Aruna Viswanatha at aruna.viswanatha@wsj.com and C. Ryan Barber at ryan.barber@wsj.com