Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on seven federal criminal charges in connection with hundreds of classified government documents he retained at his Florida home after leaving the White House.

Trump himself disclosed the indictment in a series of posts on his Truth Social social media site on Thursday evening. He also said he has been summoned to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday.

NBC News soon after confirmed the indictment, which is the second time in recent months that Trump has been criminally charged. He remains under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice and a Georgia state prosecutor for his efforts to reverse his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

The specifics of the latest charges against Trump are not public, as the indictment is sealed for now.

Trump’s attorney, James Trusty, in an interview with CNN, said the charges include false statements, conspiracy to obstruct and willfully retaining documents in violation of the Espionage Act. Those charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if Trump is convicted, though the actual sentence would likely be lower because of federal sentencing guidelines.

Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is the only U.S. president, former or otherwise, ever to be criminally charged. A Trump political action committee immediately began fundraising off news about the latest indictment.

He was first indicted by a New York state grand jury in March on charges of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn star in 2016.

In a video statement Thursday, Trump called the new charges “election interference at the highest level.”

On Truth Social, Trump wrote, “I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States.”

“I AM AN INNOCENT MAN! This is indeed a DARK DAY for the United States of America,” he wrote.

A U.S. Secret Service official told NBC News that Secret Service brass will meet with Trump staff on Friday and begin security and logistics planning for his appearance in Miami court on Tuesday.

Trump has been the focus of a federal criminal investigation since last year over his stonewalling of requests to return government records, including classified documents, after ending his term as president. By law, such records must be returned when a president leaves office.

Last August, FBI agents raided Trump’s home at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, searching for records they believed would be there.

Agents found hundreds of documents marked classified, along with many more government records that he had been obligated to return.

A spokesman for special counsel Jack Smith, who has been leading the investigation for the Department of Justice, declined to comment to NBC News on Thursday.

Trump, who most recently has been living at his residence in Bedminster, New Jersey, in his social media posts wrote, “The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax.”

He griped that Biden had not been charged despite the fact that a number of government documents, some of which were classified, had been found at locations where Biden lived or worked as a private citizen.

Biden is the subject of an inquiry by another special counsel for those documents. But legal analysts have said his situation is different from that of Trump because of Trump’s failure to return government records despite repeated requests that he do so by U.S. officials.

A White House spokesman declined to comment to NBC News. He referred that query to the Department of Justice, “which conducts its criminal investigations independently.”

Until this week, it was publicly known only that a grand jury in federal court in Washington, D.C., was hearing testimony and reviewing evidence related to the documents investigation of Trump, while a separate grand jury in the same courthouse investigated his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.

But earlier this week it was revealed that another grand jury in U.S. District Court in Miami also had been collecting evidence in the documents probe. That disclosure raised the prospect that Trump would be criminally charged in Florida, not in Washington.

Trump has long maintained a home in Florida, which in recent election cycles has been won by him and by Republican candidates for governor and senator.

The state’s current governor, Ron DeSantis, is running against Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

Trump’s lawyers met with DOJ officials, including Smith, in Washington on Monday, reportedly to argue that Trump should not be indicted.

On Wednesday, a top Trump aide, Taylor Budowich, testified to the grand jury in Miami. Later that same day, NBC News and other media outlets reported that Trump had been formally notified that he was a target of the criminal probe, a step typically taken shortly before a person is indicted.

______________________________________________________________________ “Enhance Legal Practice With Authoritative Reports” — Alexander Payne Offers Comprehensive Law Reports, Spanning Over A Century Of Nigerian Jurisprudence

Interested buyers are encouraged to place their orders and enquiries via: 0704 444 4777, 0704 444 4999, 0818 199 9888 Website: www.alexandernigeria.com

_______________________________________________________________________ [A MUST HAVE] Evidence Act Demystified With Recent And Contemporary Cases And Materials
“Evidence Act: Complete Annotation” by renowned legal experts Sanni & Etti.
Available now for NGN 40,000 at ASC Publications, 10, Boyle Street, Onikan, Lagos. Beside High Court, TBS. Email publications@ayindesanni.com or WhatsApp +2347056667384. Purchase Link: https://paystack.com/buy/evidence-act-complete-annotation _______________________________________________________________________

“Order Justice Omolaye-Ajileye’s Electronic Evidence Books Now” — Essential Guides On Evidence Act, Case Law And Digital Proof

Two leading books on electronic evidence by Hon. Justice Professor Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, Rtd., PhD, FICMC, are now available for purchase. The publications, Electronic Evidence (Second Edition), With The Evidence Act, 2011 and Compendium Of Cases On Electronic Evidence, Volume II, 2020–2025, provide practical guidance, legal analysis and recent judicial authorities on electronic evidence in Nigeria.Order directly from the author here: https://velvety-cendol-7387ed.netlify.app/ _______________________________________________________________________ Groundbreaking Guide For Lawyers: Adigwe Publishes ‘Artificial Intelligence For Lawyers’ With Free Research eBook The book also examines Nigeria's legal ecosystem, focusing on the LPELR and NBA AI Guidelines. As a bonus, every purchase comes with a FREE eBook titled: How to Use the AI Features in LegalPedia and LawPavilion. Ohio Books Ltd praises the publication, stating: "....this is the only Nigerian book I know of on the topic." How to Order: 📞 Call, Text, or WhatsApp: 08034917063 | 07055285878 📧 Email: benadigwe1@gmail.com 🌎 Website: www.benadigwe.com Ebook Version: Access it directly online at https://selar.com/prv626 Authored by Ben Ijeoma Adigwe Esq., ACIarb (UK), LL.M, Dip. in Artificial Intelligence, Director at the Delta State Ministry of Justice, Asaba, Nigeria. _______________________________________________________________________