Donald Trump made history Thursday, becoming the first former president to receive a federal indictment from the Department of Justice.
In scathing social media posts on his platform Truth Social, the twice-impeached commander-in-chief and current Republican Party presidential nomination front-runner broke the news of his indictment. He said he’s innocent of all charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents discovered at his Florida estate in August 2022.
By late Friday, an unsealed indictment far surpassed an earlier estimated seven charges as the mishandling of classified documents earned Trump 37 felony counts. He’s due to make his first court appearance on Tuesday.
“It’s election interference at the highest level,” Trump said in a video post on Truth Social. “There’s never been anything like what’s happened. I’m an innocent man, an innocent person.” He also called the indictment a “hoax” and blamed the Biden administration.
As new reporting surfaces about how Donald Trump may have flaunted his knowledge of sensitive documents, questions have swelled.
Some have alleged the justice department is weaponized, pulling away credibility from Trump and snuffing his prominence during the presidential primary season. Others still wonder about Trump’s status as a former president, if the classified documents he kept were indeed classified and why he decided to share the charges less than a day before the documents were unsealed.
WTOP went in depth with experts to find answers to these questions and better understand the legal and political implications of this historic indictment.
Federal indictment unsealed
Rebecca Beitsch — National security and legal affairs reporter, The Hill
“To me it’s not really clear why [Trump being a former president] would matter… our system of justice is supposed to treat people equally, regardless of their stature or the job they hold.”
Scott MacFarlane — Congressional correspondent, CBS News
“There are a number of criticisms of this prosecution that say ‘what about President Biden? What about his documents?’ This charging document… alleges a cover-up”
Dan Balz — Chief correspondent, Washington Post
“I don’t mean to diminish what’s going on in the New York court, but here we’re talking about national security secrets, we’re talking about the national security of the United States…”
Thane Rosenbaum — Legal analyst, CBS News
“I thought today was going to be mostly about obstruction… and, guess what, the indictment is very specific about what the president was saying… that’s very important.”
Scott MacFarlane — Congressional correspondent, CBS News
“It is clear: these are state secrets allegedly being shared by the former president with people who didn’t have security clearances…”
Political reaction amid 2024 campaigns
Peter Baker — Chief White House correspondent, The New York Times
“What both Biden and Pence did… Trump is accused of doing the exact opposite.”
Sophia Cai — Congressional reporter, Axios
“This will continue to dominate the primary season. It may even dominate the general election… that could be what Trump’s legal and political team wants.”
John Dickerson — Chief political analyst, senior national correspondent and anchor, CBS News
“The [former] president has had great success in his party rallying supporters and other politicians in a public forum and that has worked for him because part of what his legal strategy is is to make this a public spectacle.”
Mitchell Miller — Capitol Hill correspondent, WTOP News
“The term that most Republicans are using, whether it’s a talking point or not, is ‘weaponization of the justice department.'”
Trump’s charging announcement
Bob Cusack — Editor in chief, The Hill
“The Republican base certainly believes in the weaponization of government, so that plays into that Republican argument.”
Scott MacFarlane — Congressional correspondent, CBS News
“Let’s put the predictable stuff aside. What’s unpredictable is what happens in court next.”
Josh Gerstein — Senior political affairs reporter, POLITICO
“How do you have a trial of someone, or even move forward with these charges, right in the middle, potentially, of the presidential race? Usually, it takes a year or so for a major federal criminal case to go to trial, sometimes a little longer. That would take us to next summer,” Gerstein told WTOP’s Dimitri Sotis.
Carol Leonnig — National investigative reporter, Washington Post
“You know, he likes to be the person who announces what happens,” Leonnig said.
