US Indicts Former President Donald Trump with Crimes

A United States federal grand jury is charging former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump¹ with crimes linked to his possession of sensitive government documents. Trump is to appear in court in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday to hear the charges against him.

The day will mark the first time a former president has been charged with a crime in a federal court.

The indictment² was released publicly Friday.

Jack³ Smith is the Justice Department special counsel who filed the charges against Trump. Smith spoke⁴ to reporters after the indictment was opened. He explained the charges against Trump and said that the country has "one set of laws and they apply to everyone."

Smith did not take questions at the press conference.

Trump has said he is innocent and has done "nothing wrong."

The indictment accuses Trump of 37 crimes. They include willfully holding national defense⁵ information, obstruction⁶, false statements and plotting with another to carry out a crime.

In March, a government lawyer in the state of New York charged Trump with 34 counts of criminally falsifying business documents. That indictment made Trump the first former president to face criminal charges.

Why are federal officials investigating Trump?

The Justice Department announced an investigation⁷ into Trump's keeping possession of government records in early 2022. The investigation started when the National Archives reported that Trump had hundreds of sensitive government documents at his home in Florida.

Under U.S. law, presidential records belong to the government and must be given to the National Archive when a president leaves office.

Trump is being accused of taking hundreds of records from the White House and sending them to his home at Mar-a-Lago.

The National Archives demanded the documents from Trump's representatives in 2021 and received 14 containers of them in January 2022. The boxes contained more than 100 documents that are described as "classified."

The National Archives then reported the discovery to the Justice Department, which started an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

How is a special counsel involved?

The Justice Department was leading the investigation through most of last year. In November, Trump announced that he would again be a presidential candidate. Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed Jack Smith, a department lawyer, as a special counsel to carry out the investigation.

Smith brought evidence to two grand juries in recent months. One in Washington, D.C. and another in Miami, Florida. A court ordered a number of witnesses to appear before the two groups, which decide whether charges can be brought.

Smith is also investigating Trump in connection with the events that lead to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building.

A federal indictment would not disqualify Trump from competing in the 2024 presidential campaign. Experts say the former president could seek a return to office even if he is found guilty of charges.

Other documents cases

In January, the Justice Department named another special counsel, Robert Hur, to investigate the documents case of President Joe Biden. The documents are from at least the time when Biden was vice⁸ president.

The documents were found last year at Biden's former Washington office and at his home in Delaware. Biden's lawyers have said there are few documents involved and that they were given to the government as soon as they were found.

Experts suggest that failing to correctly deal with classified documents would be unlikely to cause federal officials to bring charges. Jordan Strauss is a former Justice Department official who is now with Kroll, a business risk adviser⁹. He said there is a Justice Department policy saying that a current president cannot be indicted¹⁰.

Former Vice President Mike Pence has also been criticized for holding classified documents. And the Associated Press reported last year that the claim that former President Barack Obama took millions of documents when he left office was false.

Answering a question about whether the Justice Department indictment of a competing presidential candidate was unfair, Biden said:

"I have never once — not one single time — suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do, relative to bringing a charge or not bringing a charge. I'm honest."

Words in This Story

obstruction –n. (legal) the act of blocking or trying to block legal officials from getting evidence that they are seeking

conspiracy¹¹ –n. (legal) a secret plan by two or more people to do something harmful or illegal

indictment –n. (legal) the process of bringing charges before a court of law

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 indictment   

n.起诉；诉状

参考例句：

• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
• They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。

3 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

6 obstruction   

n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物

参考例句：

• She was charged with obstruction of a police officer in the execution of his duty.她被指控妨碍警察执行任务。
• The road was cleared from obstruction.那条路已被清除了障碍。

7 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

8 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

9 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

10 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

11 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。