June 9, 2023 Latest on federal indictment against Donald Trump

Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon, an appointee of Donald Trump, has been initially assigned to oversee the new federal criminal case against the former president in Miami, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Cannon emerged in the public spotlight last year when she was oversaw court proceedings related to the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Cannon took a number of extraordinary steps in her handling of the dispute over a so-called special master, who reviewed the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, raising eyebrows even among legal experts on the right.

Trump has been indicted in the classified documents probe and is expected to appear in Miami federal court to be read the charges he faces on Tuesday. That is expected to happen before Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who signed the Mar-a-Lago search warrant last August.

ABC first reported the judicial assignments in the criminal case.

Now Cannon, if she remains on the case, would have wide latitude to control timing and evidence in the case and be able to vet the Justice Department's legal theory.

Cannon’s appointment of the third-party special master was ultimately overturned by a very conservative panel of judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. That special master process had put on hold the Justice Department's investigation into the documents it obtained in the search so that the outside attorney could review the materials for any privilege issues.

Sen. Mitt Romney, the Republican from Utah and frequent critic of former President Donald Trump, had a very different message from most members of his party this morning in the wake of Trump's indictment.

“These allegations are serious and if proven, would be consistent with his other actions offensive to the national interest, such as withholding defensive weapons from Ukraine for political reasons and failing to defend the Capitol from violent attack and insurrection.”

Jack Smith, the special counsel announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland last year to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection, is a long-time prosecutor who has overseen a variety of high-profile cases during a career that spans decades.

Smith’s experience ranges from prosecuting a sitting US senator to bringing cases against gang members who were ultimately convicted of murdering New York City police officers. In recent years, Smith has prosecuted war crimes at The Hague. His career in multiple parts of the Justice Department, as well as in international courts, has allowed him to keep a relatively low-profile in the oftentimes brassy legal industry.

In a statement following his announcement, Smith pledged to conduct the investigations “independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.”

A career prosecutor: Smith began his career as an assistant district attorney with the New York County District Attorney’s Office in 1994. He worked in the Eastern District of New York in 1999 as an assistant US attorney, where he prosecuted cases including civil rights violations and police officers murdered by gangs, according to the Justice Department.

As a prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, one of Smith’s biggest and most high-profile cases was prosecuting gang member Ronell Wilson for the murder of two New York City police department detectives during an undercover gun operation in Staten Island.

Wilson was convicted and sentenced to death, the first death penalty case in New York at the time in 50 years, though a judge later found he was ineligible for the death penalty.

Smith began his career as an assistant district attorney with the New York County District Attorney’s Office in 1994. He worked in the Eastern District of New York in 1999 as an assistant US attorney, where he prosecuted cases including civil rights violations and police officers murdered by gangs, according to the Justice Department.

As a prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, one of Smith’s biggest and most high-profile cases was prosecuting gang member Ronell Wilson for the murder of two New York City police department detectives during an undercover gun operation in Staten Island.

Wilson was convicted and sentenced to death, the first death penalty case in New York at the time in 50 years, though a judge later found he was ineligible for the death penalty.

Moe Fodeman, who worked with Smith at EDNY, called him “one of the best trial lawyers I have ever seen.”

Read more about Smith's career here.

Law enforcement officials from various agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, are meeting in Miami to discuss security preparations ahead of Donald Trump’s expected court appearance next week. 

A threat assessment of the building has already been completed and found no credible threats, a law enforcement source tells CNN.  

Law enforcement is scrambling to prepare Trump’s court appearance scheduled for Tuesday, and the Justice Department is moving additional resources there, CNN has reported.

The Federal Protective Service, under DHS, provides security for federal government facilities. US Secret Service and US Marshals also play a role. The Secret Service protects the former president, and the Marshals protect courts and judges.

Donald Trump can still run as president while indicted or if he is convicted.

“Nothing stops Trump from running while indicted, or even convicted,” the University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard Hasen has told CNN.

The Constitution requires only three things of candidates: They must be a natural born citizen, at least 35 years old and a resident of the US for at least 14 years.

There are a few other Constitutional restrictions that can block a person for running for president — but they don't apple to Trump:

Term limits: The 22nd Amendment forbids anyone who has twice been president — meaning twice been elected or served half of someone else’s term and then won his or her own — from running again. That doesn’t apply to former President Donald Trump since he lost the 2020 election.

Impeachment: If a person is impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate of high crimes and misdemeanors, he or she is removed from office and disqualified from serving again. Trump, although twice impeached by the House during his presidency, was also twice acquitted by the Senate.

Disqualification: The 14th Amendment includes a “disqualification clause,” written specifically with an eye toward former Confederate soldiers.

It reads:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

The indictment in New York City with regard to the hush-money payments to an adult-film star has nothing to do with rebellion or insurrection. Federal charges related to classified documents likely do not either.

Potential charges in Fulton County, Georgia, with regard to 2020 election meddling or at the federal level with regard to the January 6, 2021, insurrection could perhaps be construed by some as a form of insurrection. But that is an open question that would have to work its way through the courts. The 2024 election is fast approaching.

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on seven counts in the special counsel's classified documents probe

But this was not the first time Trump was indicted: He already became the first ex-president to be charged with a criminal offense when a Manhattan grand jury indicted him.

But the indictment by the special counsel in the documents case is a far graver affair and more politically sensitive since it comes from the Justice Department.

Trump is facing a charge under the Espionage Act, his attorney Jim Trusty said on CNN Thursday, as well as charges of obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy and false statements.

While all the exact charges against Trump were not immediately clear, the potential offenses strike at the core of some of the most somber duties of the presidency – including the protection of the country’s most vital secrets. And any allegation of obstruction involves another fundamental role of the public trust that Trump held and to which he aspires in the current campaign – the obligation of a president to uphold the laws.

The current scenario will test whether the US remains a nation of laws. If evidence exists that Trump has indeed committed alleged breaches of the criminal code, a decision not to charge him would shatter the principle that everyone is equal under the law. But some will ask whether the indictment is truly in the national interest given the backlash against democratic and judicial institutions certain to be whipped up by the ex-president.

The federal criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump’s potential mishandling of classified documents led to Thursday's indictment. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.

The indictment hasn’t been unsealed yet, so details of the charges aren’t publicly available. But the investigation – led by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith – revolves around sensitive government papers that Trump held onto after his White House term ended in January 2021. The special counsel has also examined whether Trump or his aides obstructed the investigation.

Here’s a timeline of the important developments in the blockbuster investigation.

May 2021: An official from the National Archives and Records Administration contacts Trump’s team after realizing that several important documents weren’t handed over before Trump left the White House. The missing documents include some of Trump’s correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as the map of Hurricane Dorian that Trump infamously altered with a sharpie pen.

July 2021: In a taped conversation, Trump acknowledges that he still has a classified Pentagon document about a possible attack against Iran, according to CNN reporting. This indicates that Trump understood that he retained classified material after leaving the White House. The special counsel later obtained this audiotape, a key piece of evidence in his inquiry.

Fall 2021: NARA grows frustrated with the slow pace of document turnover after several months of conversations with the Trump team.

January 18, 2022: After months of discussions with Trump’s team, NARA retrieves 15 boxes of Trump White House records from Mar-a-Lago.

February 9, 2022: NARA asks the Justice Department to investigate Trump’s handling of White House records and whether he violated the Presidential Records Act and other laws related to classified information. The Presidential Records Act requires all records created by a sitting president to be turned over to the National Archives at the end of their administration.

April 7, 2022: NARA publicly acknowledges for the first time that the Justice Department is involved, and news outlets report that prosecutors have launched a criminal probe into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.

May 11, 2022: The Justice Department subpoenas Trump, demanding all documents with classification markings that are still at Mar-a-Lago.

June 3, 2022: Federal investigators, including a top Justice Department counterintelligence official, visit Mar-a-Lago to deal with the subpoena for remaining classified documents. Trump lawyer Christina Bobb signs a sworn affidavit inaccurately asserting that there aren’t any more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

August 8, 2022: The FBI executes a court-approved search warrant at Mar-a-Lago – a major escalation of the investigation. Federal agents found more than 100 additional classified documents at the property. The search was the first time in American history that a former president’s home was searched as part of a criminal investigation.

August 12, 2022: Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart approves the unsealing of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant and its property receipt, at the Justice Department’s request and after Trump’s lawyers agree to the release. The warrant reveals the Justice Department is looking into possible violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records, as part of its investigation.

August 22, 2022: Trump files a federal lawsuit seeking the appointment of a third-party attorney known as a “special master” to independently review the materials that the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago. This was granted on September 5, 2022, and senior Judge Raymond Dearie was appointed on September 15, 2022, to be the special master.

November 18, 2022: Special counsel Jack Smith is appointed to take over the investigation.

Spring 2023: A string of Trump employees and aides testify before the special counsel’s grand jury in Washington, DC.

March 25, 2023: Evan Corcoran, the lead Trump attorney, testifies before the grand jury in Washington, DC. He later recused himself from handling the Mar-a-Lago matter.

June 2023: The first public indications emerge that the special counsel is using a second grand jury in Miami to gather evidence. Multiple witnesses testify in front of the Miami-based panel, CNN reported.

June 7, 2023: News outlets report that the Justice Department recently sent a “target letter” to Trump, formally notifying him that he’s a target of the investigation into potential mishandling of classified documents.

June 8, 2023: News outlets report that Trump has been indicted in connection with the classified documents investigation. Trump also says in a social media post that the Justice Department informed his attorneys that he was indicted – and called the case a “hoax.”

CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Casey Gannon contributed to this report.

The last time former President Donald Trump was indicted, Joe Biden left the White House the next day intent on going about his schedule without wading into the matter.

As Trump is indicted a second time, President Joe Biden is planning to do the same – an intentional demonstration of calm and normalcy amid the continuing chaos of his predecessor.

That’s because he and his aides believe doing so would only lend grist to Trump’s claim that he’s the victim of a political “witch hunt.” Biden doesn’t want to be baited into providing Trump any fuel for his allegations, people familiar with his thinking said. And he remains firmly of the belief that sitting presidents should not comment on legal matters.

It’s a situation Biden and his team know they must handle carefully.

“You’ll notice, I have never once – not one single time – suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do on whether to bring any charges or not bring any charges. I’m honest,” Biden said at a news conference Thursday.

Biden is hoping to project an air of competence and authority as a contrast to the chaos that has accompanied Trump for years. That comparison could hardly be starker this week.

Former President Donald Trump acknowledged on tape in a 2021 meeting that he had retained “secret” military information that he had not declassified, according to a transcript of the audio recording obtained by CNN.

“As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” Trump says, according to the transcript.

CNN obtained the transcript of a portion of the meeting where Trump is discussing a classified Pentagon document about attacking Iran. In the audio recording, which CNN previously reported was obtained by prosecutors, Trump says that he did not declassify the document he’s referencing, according to the transcript.

Trump was indicted Thursday on seven counts in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents. Details from the indictment have not been made public, so it unknown whether any of the seven counts refer to the recorded 2021 meeting. Still, the tape is significant because it shows that Trump had an understanding the records he had with him at Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House remained classified.

Publicly, Trump has claimed that all the documents he brought with him to his Florida residence are declassified, while he’s railed against the special counsel’s investigation as a political witch hunt attempting to interfere with his 2024 presidential campaign.

Read more here.