Donald Trump could face 100 years behind bars if convicted of all seven charges related to mishandling classified information, according to a report.
The 76-year-old said on Thursday he was told he was being charged with espionage – the first time in US history a former president has faced federal charges.
He was indicted in Manhattan in April on charges of making hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels – those allegations, too, were historic and marked the first time a former president had faced criminal charges.
But the classified information charges are federal and significantly more serious, carrying hefty prison sentences.
The news drew outrage from the Republican party, with even his 2024 rival Ron DeSantis declaring that “the arming of federal law enforcement poses a deadly threat to a free society.”
Trump himself condemned the allegations, calling them political persecution, and saying, “I’m innocent.”
Trump was furious with the ‘corrupt Biden administration’, accusing them of election interference in a video posted just minutes after announcing his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club
The 76-year-old was at his Bedminster golf club when news of his charge broke
He will appear in court in Miami on Tuesday at 3 p.m. when the charges will be unsealed.
His attorney, Jim Trusty, told CNN that all seven charges “escape an espionage charge.”
But ABC News reported that Trump faces four separate charges, each carrying a potential 20-year prison sentence: conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding any document or record; corruptly concealing any document or record; and hiding a document in a federal investigation.
One count carries a 10-year prison sentence: deliberately withholding national defense information.
And the last two counts each have a maximum of five years: plan to conceal and misrepresentations and misrepresentations.
Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the investigation, has not commented.
Jack Smith was appointed special counsel in November to investigate Trump’s handling of classified information
An FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August found a trove of classified documents (pictured)
Trump is reportedly angry with his team for leading him to believe he would not face charges, CBS News reported.
Prosecutors have been investigating the transfer of presidential files to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida since last year.
The investigation made headlines in August when the FBI searched Trump’s Florida home and recovered 11,000 documents, including about 100 classified as classified.
For his part, Trump has repeatedly maintained that he has done nothing wrong and that he is the victim of a federal witch hunt.
At times, the controversy has even boosted his standing in the polls and allowed him to raise money from supporters who see a “deep state” plot to take him out of the 2024 race.
“The corrupt Biden administration has informed my lawyers that I have been charged, apparently because of the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1,850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, D.C., and more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents scattered across his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, which is “secured” only by a garage door that is paper thin and open much of the time,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday night.
“I have been subpoenaed to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami at 3:00 p.m. Tuesday. I never imagined that something like this could happen to a former president of the United States, who has received far more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country, and currently leads the vast majority of candidates, both Democrat and the president. Republican, in 2024 presidential election polls. I’M AN INNOCENT MAN!’
He released a video later on Thursday night.
“Unfortunately we are a nation in decline and yet they are chasing after a very popular president,” Trump said.
“I’m an innocent man, I’ve done nothing wrong,” he continued, promising to “fight this out.”
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Trump also said he would “of course” plead not guilty.
Security around the Miami courthouse is already being heightened ahead of his appearance before a judge, scheduled for 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
Trump will be arraigned Tuesday in this federal courthouse in Miami. News crews are pictured on Thursday plotting their positions
The investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents is overseen by a special counsel, Jack Smith, who was appointed in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
DeSantis, who ranks second in polls nationwide, stopped short of saying he would pardon Trump if he won the 2024 race, and the former president was convicted.
But he condemned the decision to press charges.
“For years we have witnessed an uneven application of the law depending on political affiliation,” he said.
Why so zealous about chasing Trump yet so passive about Hillary or Hunter? The DeSantis administration will be accountable to the DOJ, excise political bias, and end armaments once and for all.”
Ron DeSantis runs to the defense of his 2024 Republican rival Donald Trump to attack the Justice Department and ask why it’s not going after Hillary Clinton or Hunter Biden
DeSantis and Trump have traded barbs as the Republican campaign for president in 2024 gets underway.
But DeSantis dropped his guard to criticize the move that makes Trump the first president to face federal indictments.
He joined Republican members of Congress in tearing up the double standards of justice, claiming the timing of the indictment was convenient given new allegations that President Biden had received $5 million in bribes from a Burisma executive when he was vice president.
DeSantis supporters have said Trump should drop out of the race for the White House so that the Florida governor can pardon him if he wins in 2024. Trump currently has a significant lead over DeSantis in the polls.
“Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America,” said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“It is unconscionable for a president to indict the leading candidate against him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades.
“I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold accountable for this brutal weaponization of power.”
Josh Hawley, a senator for Missouri, tweeted, “If those in power can jail their political opponents at will, we don’t have a republic.”
And Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter: “DOJ sues former president/candidate Trump SAME DAY DOJ/FBI restricts access to unnecessarily redacted Biden allegations.
“And they wonder why people think there are two standards of justice.”