Can Trump still run for president? Wasn't he already indicted? Your questions, answered
Analysis from CNN's Zachary B. Wolf
Former President Donald Trump’s announcement on his social media platform that he has been indicted by the US Department of Justice raised more questions than it answered — but we may not know much more until next Tuesday, when Trump has been ordered to appear at a federal courthouse in Miami at 3 p.m.
Here are some of the answers we have so far:
- Has this ever happened before? Absolutely not. No former president, or presidential frontrunner from a major political party, has ever been charged with a federal crime.
- Wasn't he already indicted? Yes, Trump was indicted in March on state charges related to hush-money payments to a former adult-film star. This new indictment involves completely different federal charges, related to his handling of classified documents after he left the White House.
- Can he still run for president? Yes — nothing stops Trump from running while indicted, or even convicted. It may be more difficult for an indicted candidate to win votes, but it's not forbidden for them to run or be elected.
- What if Trump wins before the trial ends? He could make it go away, one attorney told CNN. If Trump wins the election, as president he could control the Justice Department, and dismiss the case if it is still pending.
- Could Trump be jailed? We’re getting ahead of ourselves. He hasn’t been tried, much less convicted. People do routinely serve prison time for retention of classified documents, conspiracy and obstruction — but top officials accused of wrongdoing also have historically found a way out of jail.
Read more answers to your questions here.
Analysis: Trump now faces his second criminal indictment as he looks to recapture White House
Analysis from CNN's Stephen Collinson
Donald Trump, who has often lied, unquestionably told the truth when he said Thursday was a “dark day” for America.
The ex-president’s social media post correctly described the magnitude of his indictment over the alleged mishandling of classified documents — though completely ignored any personal culpability in the case.
But the first-ever indictment of a former president by a federal grand jury thrust the country into an unprecedented and perilous moment in its history at a time when it is already internally estranged over politics.
Criminal probes of former presidents and current presidential candidates might be business as usual in tottering developing world states. But there’s no parallel for an ex-commander in chief facing federal charges in the US, much less one who has already incited violence in order to advance his political ends and is currently running to recapture the White House.
America’s legal and political institutions, which were repeatedly torn apart by Trump’s tumultuous term in office, may now face their biggest test from an ex-president who was impeached twice, tried to steal an election and is already facing a separate criminal trial next March.
If that was not serious enough, these federal charges — related to classified documents that Trump took to his Mar-a-Lago resort — are coming down at a moment when Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024.
These seven counts bring a host of political complications, even if the Justice Department will argue that it’s simply following the evidence and is proving that no one, not even former presidents, are above the law.
Simply put, Trump is set to be brought to trial by the Justice Department of his successor. In another profound twist, that successor — President Joe Biden — could end up facing the accused in the 2024 general election, in a scenario that would inject new fervor into Trump’s claims he’s a victim of politicized justice. Trump’s supporters already thought that an invisible “deep state” establishment was out to get their hero. It will be even worse now.
Read Collinson's full analysis here.
Fact check: Trump’s false or unsupported claims on the documents' investigation
From CNN's Daniel Dale
Former President Donald Trump has made numerous false and unsupported claims about the federal investigation into his handling of government documents, a probe he announced Thursday has resulted in his indictment.
Here is a fact check of the claims Trump has made about the investigation since the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago resort and residence in August 2022.
False claim: Trump was following the Presidential Records Act by refusing to immediately return documents
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Presidential Records Act, a 1978 law, says he was supposed to hold negotiations with the National Archives and Records Administration about the return of official documents after his presidency.
For example, he said in a March 2023 interview on Fox that the law is “very specific”: “It says you are going to discuss the documents. You discuss everything – not only docu– everything – about what’s going in NARA, et cetera, et cetera. You’re gonna discuss it. You will talk, talk, talk. And if you can’t come to an agreement, you’re gonna continue to talk.”
He made a similar claim at a CNN town hall in May, saying the law “says you talk, you negotiate, you make a deal.”
Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. The Presidential Records Act says that, the moment a president leaves office, NARA gets custody and control of all presidential records from his administration. Nothing in the law says there should be a negotiation between a former president and NARA over a former president’s return of presidential documents – much less that there should have been a monthslong battle after NARA first contacted Trump’s team in 2021 to try to get some of the records that had not been handed over at the end of his presidency.
The key sentence from the Presidential Records Act is unequivocal: “Upon the conclusion of a President’s term of office, or if a President serves consecutive terms upon the conclusion of the last term, the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President.”
False claim: Obama, the Bushes and others took millions of documents home with them after leaving office
Trump has repeatedly claimed that he has been singled out by federal law enforcement even though his predecessors as president all took documents with them after leaving office.
For example, Trump claimed in the fall of 2022 that former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush all took millions of documents; he repeated the claim that Obama took documents at the CNN town hall in May. He also claimed that George H.W. Bush took his documents to a poorly secured Chinese restaurant and bowling alley.
Facts First: This is all false, as NARA itself pointed out in a statement in 2022. In reality, NARA was granted custody of the presidential records of former presidents (beginning with Ronald Reagan as soon as these presidents left office) as soon as these presidents left office, as required by the Presidential Records Act, and it was NARA, not those presidents, that moved those documents out of the nation’s capital to NARA-managed temporary archival facilities near where their permanent presidential libraries would be built. The NARA-managed facility where records from the George H.W. Bush administration were stored was indeed a former restaurant and bowling alley, but it had been turned into a full-fledged archival facility, and professionally secured in various ways, by the time the documents were moved in.
Read more here
Lawmakers and political candidates react to Trump's federal indictment
From CNN’s Hill team
A few of former President Donald Trump’s staunchest congressional allies, presidential candidates and other officials have begun to weigh in on the news that he has been indicted.
In a tweet reacting to the indictment Thursday, Rep. Matt Gaetz referenced an unverified allegation that President Joe Biden was involved in a bribery scheme involving a foreign national while vice president.
“Imagine being naive enough to believe that the Biden Bribe evidence and Trump indictment happening the same day was a coincidence.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also mentioned allegations made against Biden, calling Thursday's indictment against Trump "shameful" and "pathetic."
"Ultimately the biggest hypocrisy in modern day history," she wrote on Twitter. "A complete and total failure to the American people. A stain on our nation that the FBI and DOJ are so corrupt and they don’t even hide it anymore."
Rep. Jim Jordan said that it is a “sad day for America." "God Bless President Trump," he added.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called the indictment "an affront to every citizen."
"We cannot devolve into a banana republic where the party in power uses police force to arrest its political opponents," he said in a statement. "It’s hypocritical for the DOJ to selectively prosecute Trump but not Biden."
Presidential candidate, Gov. Chris Christie, tweeted that he wanted to wait until the facts about a possible indictment were released.
"As I have said before, no one is above the law, no matter how much they wish they were. We will have more to say when the facts are revealed,” he said.
Another candidate, Sen. Tim Scott, offered his prayers for the nation in an interview with Fox News when asked if he had spoken to Trump about the indictment.
“I certainly will continue to pray for our nation and continue to pray that justice prevails,” said Scott, not offering a direct answer on if he spoke to Trump or would reach out to the former president.
Steve Laffey, who is also vying for the presidency, criticized the former president, saying in a statement Thursday that Trump "continues to make a mockery of the electoral process."
"Enough is enough," Laffey said. "President Trump will have more court appearances than campaign stops at this rate."
GOP presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson, who has been critical of Trump, called on the former president to “respect the office and end his campaign” in the wake of being indicted by federal prosecutors.
"Donald Trump's actions—from his willful disregard for the Constitution to his disrespect for the rule of law—should not define our nation or the Republican Party. This is a sad day for our country,” Hutchinson said in a statement.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is also running for president, tweeted that the indictment represented a "weaponization of federal law enforcement."
He added:
“Why so zealous in pursuing Trump yet so passive about Hillary or Hunter? The DeSantis administration will bring accountability to the DOJ, excise political bias and end weaponization once and for all.”
Trump lawyer accuses top DOJ national security lawyer of misconduct
From CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz
James Trusty, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, alleged a top lawyer in the Department of Justice's national security division “extorted” a witnesses’ lawyer to try and earn their cooperation in the ongoing special counsel probe.
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlin Collins Thursday, Trusty said he was unsure whether anyone was indicted alongside the former president, but had a “theory that some of the outrageous misconduct may have affected the outcome in some other case.”
“Over the last 24 hours, it has become public that members of the Department of Justice led by Jay Bratt… apparently along with five other people in his presence from DOJ, extorted a very well respected, very intelligent lawyer from Washington, DC,” Trusty said of Bratt, a Justice Department lawyer who Trusty called “ a pivotal figure in this investigation.”
The allegation of wrongdoing has been raised by several allies of the former president, but there is not yet any public evidence backing the claim. The Department of Justice has not commented on the allegations.
Though he did not provide evidence to back up the claim, Trusty said the defense lawyer wrote a sworn letter about the incident to a federal judge.
He added that Trump’s defense team would also seek text messages or emails between other prosecutors in the room with Bratt during the alleged event to see “just how far ranging this criminal activity was by prosecutors.”
Trusty alleged that Bratt told an unnamed defense lawyer that if that lawyer wants to become a judge, “you have to flip your guy to cooperate against the president of the United States.”
“Think of the irony, once again, you've got prosecutors saying, we're going after this guy because of obstruction, that's their theoretical distinction from Delaware, while they literally obstructed justice,” Trusty alleged. “They literally tampered with a witness in the fall of 2022.
Trump's attorney confirms former president faces 7-count indictment
From CNN's Kaanita Iyer
Donald Trump's attorney Jim Trusty confirmed Thursday night that the former president has been charged with seven counts – and revealed that the charges “break out from an Espionage Act charge.”
"It does have some language in it that suggests what the seven charges would be. Not 100% clear that all of those are separate charges, but they basically break out from an Espionage Act charge," he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Trusty called the espionage charge “ludicrous,” and added that there are also “several obstruction-based-type charges and then false statement charges.”
He said his team did not get a copy of the indictment but instead received a summons via email. Trusty refused to reveal when his team received the initial letter from the Justice Department that listed Trump as a target of their investigation.
He confirmed that Trump will appear in court Tuesday but would not say which attorneys will be present with the former president.
Watch:
Miami police say they're ready to help federal partners for Trump court appearance
From CNN’s Jamiel Lynch
Miami-Dade police say they are ready to help if called upon by federal partners for the court appearance of former President Donald Trump.
“The Miami-Dade Police Department has not received any federal requests for security support," spokesperson Alvaro Zabaleta said in a statement. "Along with our partners at the City of Miami Police Department, we are prepared to provide any assistance, support and resources that may be needed."
Trump has been indicted in the special counsel’s classified documents probe, as CNN previously reported.
The former president wrote on Truth Social that he was “summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM.”
Secret Service will meet with staff tomorrow to start security planning for Trump indictment
From CNN's Zachary Cohen
The US Secret Service will meet with staff tomorrow morning and begin security planning related to former President Donald Trump's indictment, a source familiar tells CNN.
The service was not given a heads up before Trump was notified of the indictment, the source said, adding preparations will begin accordingly tomorrow morning.
Speaker McCarthy calls Trump indictment "grave injustice"
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that "today is indeed a dark day" for the country following news of former President Donald Trump's indictment in the special counsel’s classified documents probe.
"It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades," McCarthy said on Twitter. "I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable."
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