(Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the chamber’s top Republican, said on Thursday that the indictment of Donald Trump was a “dark day” for the United States and that he stood with the former President.
“House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable,” he wrote on Twitter.
(Reuters) – Here is a timeline of events that led to charges against former U.S. President Donald Trump and others over government records, some marked as highly sensitive, stored at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after he left the White House in January 2021:
Feb. 9, 2022: The National Archives and Records Administration asks the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Trump’s handling of government records, after Trump returned boxes of government documents stored at Mar-a-Lago that included classified materials.
Aug. 8, 2022: Trump discloses that FBI agents searched Mar-a-Lago and broke into a safe in what one of Trump’s sons said was part of a federal investigation into retention of records.
Aug. 12, 2022: The court-approved warrant behind the Aug. 8 search is released. It shows that 11 sets of classified documents were taken from Trump’s property. The warrant states the Justice Department has probable cause to believe there were possible violations of the Espionage Act which makes it a crime to release information that could harm national security.
Aug. 22, 2022: Trump sues to block the Justice Department from reviewing materials seized from his home until a third-party arbiter, known as a special master, is assigned to make sure privileged documents are not improperly accessed.
Aug. 26, 2022: DOJ releases the heavily redacted affidavit behind the warrant for the search of Trump’s property, disclosing that it believed the former president illegally possessed documents including some involving intelligence-gathering and clandestine human sources. The affidavit also says that there were “a significant number of civilian witnesses” assisting in the probe and that the department believed there also was evidence of obstruction.
Sept. 6, 2022: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon grants Trump’s request for a special master over DOJ objections, an action that delays the investigation. Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie of Brooklyn is later named to run that third-party review.
Sept. 15, 2022: The Justice Department seeks to access the classified materials taken in the search. Cannon rejects the bid, but the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later allows DOJ to review the documents.
Nov. 16, 2022: Trump announces he will run for the Republican nomination in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Nov. 20, 2022: U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appoints U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith to preside over criminal matters relating to Trump, including the classified documents investigation.
Dec. 1, 2022: A federal appeals court reverses Cannon’s appointment of a special master in the case, finding she lacked the authority to appoint one. The ruling gives the Justice Department access to all materials seized in the search of Trump’s property.
Dec. 7, 2022: At least two classified records are found during a further search of Trump’s properties, a source says.
December 2022: Trump lawyer Tim Parlatore appears before a federal grand jury in Washington to describe efforts to search Trump properties for any remaining government documents.
March 24, 2023: Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran appears before a federal grand jury in Washington after a federal judge finds Smith’s team made a sufficient showing that Trump may have deceived his attorneys in furtherance of a crime.
May 17, 2023: Parlatore confirms he has left Trump’s legal team. He later says on CNN that he exited over disagreements with others over handling of the probe, claiming Trump aide Boris Epshteyn prevented attorneys from properly defending the former president. A Trump spokesperson denies the claims.
June 8, 2023: Trump writes on social media that the Biden administration has informed his attorneys that he has been indicted, and that he has been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami on June 13.
<em>Here is a list of additional legal troubles facing former President Donald Trump, who wrote on social media on Thursday that he has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice, apparently for mishandling sensitive government documents. He denies any wrongdoing.</em>
<strong>2020 ELECTION AND THE U.S. CAPITOL ATTACK</strong>
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith last year to investigate Trump on both the documents and Trump’s role in actions surrounding his loss in the 2020 presidential election that culminated in Trump’s supporters’ deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump had sought to prevent top aides, including his then-Vice President Mike Pence, from testifying in that probe being weighed by a separate D.C. grand jury. Pence appeared before the grand jury in April after Trump lost his legal challenge.
Trump repeatedly lambasted Pence before the attack for refusing to try to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.
The federal probe is also examining a plot to submit phony slates of electors to block U.S. lawmakers from certifying Biden’s victory.
A special House of Representatives committee investigating the 2021 attack last year urged the Justice Department to charge Trump with corruption of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and inciting or aiding an insurrection.
<strong>GEORGIA ELECTION TAMPERING PROBE</strong>
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, is also investigating whether Trump and others acted illegally to try to overturn his defeat in that state’s 2020 presidential vote, with a charging decision expected by Sept. 1.
The criminal investigation focuses in part on a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call Trump made to fellow Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to “find” enough votes needed to overturn Trump’s loss in Georgia.
Legal experts said Trump may have violated at least three Georgia criminal election laws: conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and intentional interference with performance of election duties.
Trump could argue that his discussions were free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution.
<strong>NEW YORK ‘HUSH MONEY’ CRIMINAL CASE</strong>
Trump became the first U.S. president past or present to face criminal charges when a New York grand jury indicted him for allegedly falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to a porn star before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump in 2006. Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and other crimes and was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 during Trump’s presidency.
Prosecutors say Trump sought to cover up that the payment to Daniels exceeded federal campaign contribution limits. Trump has denied the allegations and the sexual encounter but has admitted to reimbursing Cohen for his payment to Daniels. Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The trial is scheduled for March 25, 2024, but Trump is seeking to move the case from New York state to a federal court.
<strong>SEXUAL ABUSE AND DEFAMATION</strong>
A federal grand jury in Manhattan ordered Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages after finding him liable for sexually abusing her in the 1990s and then defaming her by lying about it in 2022.
She is seeking to amend a separate lawsuit to demand at least $10 million more after Trump made public comments on CNN and his social media platform blasting the verdict, denying he had ever met her and accusing her of making up the allegations.
Carroll filed that lawsuit, which accuses Trump of defamation, in November 2019, but it has been bogged down in appeals.
<strong>NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL CIVIL LAWSUIT</strong>
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization, last September for fraud.
James, a Democrat, said that her office found more than 200 examples of misleading asset valuations between 2011 and 2021, and that Trump inflated his net worth by billions of dollars – a scheme intended to help Trump obtain lower interest rates on loans and better insurance coverage.
The civil lawsuit seeks to permanently bar Trump and three of his adult children from running companies in New York state and to recoup at least $250 million obtained through fraud.
A trial is scheduled for October 2023.
<strong>TRUTH SOCIAL DEAL</strong>
The Justice Department and financial regulators are investigating special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp’s October 2021 deal with Trump’s social media firm Truth Social.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority have been investigating whether any securities regulations were broken, according to Digital World’s financial disclosure documents.
Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed the company and every director on its board, Digital World disclosed in June 2022.
FILE PHOTO: House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) applauds as he and U.S. President Donald Trump take part in an event on water accessibility for farms during a visit to Bakersfield, California, February 19, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
