Donald Trump is the first former US president to be indicted by federal justice. He is accused of having taken entire boxes of documents, some of them confidential, when he left the presidency in 2021.
“I am an innocent man”. Donald Trump announced on Thursday June 8 that he had been charged in the White House archives case. “The corrupt Biden administration has notified my lawyers that I have been charged,” the former president wrote on his Truth Social social network.
He said he was summoned to federal court in Miami on Tuesday for his second charge, on the eve of his 77th birthday.
“Never would I have believed this possible for a former President of the United States, who received more votes than any other sitting President in the history of our country and who is ahead of all candidates, Democrats and Republicans, in the polls for the presidential election of 2024″, wrote the American billionaire on his social network.
Trump slams ‘election interference’
For the specialist in American politics Corentin Sellin, the Republican continues to write “the judicial and political history of the United States”: Donald Trump is indeed the first former American president indicted by federal justice
“We can also see this as a democratic advance […] no one is above the law, even a president”, explains the associate professor of history on Franceinfo this Friday.
A 1978 law obliges American presidents and vice-presidents to transmit all their emails, letters and other working documents to the National Archives. Donald Trump and his lawyers, initially solicited by the National Archives, had finally sent several documents but the National Archives nevertheless requested an investigation from the American federal justice. Of the FBI agents then conducted a search at Mar-a-Lago and seized many other documents. This investigation leads today to the indictment of the former president.
In addition, another law, on espionage, prohibits American agents from keeping documents classified confidential in unauthorized and unsecured places, which seems to be the case for Donald Trump.
“This is election interference at the highest level, unheard of” Donald Trump reacted again in a video, “the Democrats are trying to destroy my reputation to win the next election”.
Being prosecuted or convicted does not prevent you from being a candidate
Destroy a reputation if you can’t make it ineligible? I’United States Code Title 18, Section 1519 provides for a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for obstructing a federal investigation by destroying, falsifying or concealing documents.
But in the United States, being charged and even sentenced for an offense or a crime does not prohibit being a candidate, elected or holding an official position. “Can Trump campaign even in prison? Yes and it has already been done”, underlines Politico which takes over the previous Eugene Victor Debs. In 1920, this Socialist Party of America candidate ran for president from his cell in Atlanta, Georgia. He had then collected nearly 1 million votes.
If justice cannot curb Donald Trump’s electoral ambitions, will Americans disavow him in 2024?
“This (the indictment, editor’s note) can be a political asset” estimates Corentin Sellin with our colleagues from Franceinfo, “Donald Trump bases his entire political message on a state plot against him”.
The former president targeted by other cases
Moreover, this is not the only investigation around Donald Trump. Last March, the former Republican president was criminally charged in a case dating back to 2016. He is accused of having paid a large sum – with the funds of his presidential campaign at the time – to Stormy Daniels. He is suspected of having had an extramarital affair with this actress and director of pornographic films and of having sought to buy her silence. Accusations refuted by the person concerned.
And that’s without counting on the ongoing investigation into the assault on the Capitol, that on attempts to influence the 2020 presidential election in Georgia or even the condemnation of the Trump Organization last January in New York. .
However, these legal escapades do not seem to slow down Donald Trump, who is determined to take his revenge against Joe Biden in 2024. Thus the Washington Post, in an opinion piece relayed by our colleagues at RFI, believes that “we are facing a uncomfortable reality – Donald Trump is both indicted by federal justice and the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
“The first indictment (Stormy Daniels case, editor’s note) served Donald Trump with Republican voters”, further observes Corentin Sellin on Franceinfo, referring to the “conspiracy story” that the Republican billionaire has built for himself. “This new indictment, emanating from the federal state, can only bring grist to the mill of the latter,” added the specialist in American history.
According to an average of the polls carried out by the specialized website RealClearPolitics, Donald Trump currently leads the way in voting intentions for the Republican nomination against Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and his former vice-president Mike Pence. If the election were held this Friday, he would also beat Joe Biden in the presidential election which will take place on November 5, 2024.
Source: BFM TV
