Donald Trump says he has been
indicted on federal criminal charges.
It is the first time this has er
happened to a former U.S. Presi.
Trump made the announcement on social media.
He says he'd been told the fedel
grand jury voted to indict him
and the investigation into his
alleged mishandling of classifid
documents after leaving office.
Now, the Justice Department has
yet to confirm the indictment,
but sources tell ABC News that p
could face as many as seven cha.
A search of his Mar a Lago
estate last year turned up more
than 100 classified documents.
ABC News reports Trump has been
ordered to appear in a federal
court in Miami on Tuesday.
Of course, he is running for president again,
so this news sure to shake thins
up on the political front,
we are joined now by Kimmy King,
political science professor at
the University of North Texas.
Thank you for waking up early wh
this morning this morning, Miss King.
We know that this does not bar p
from running for office and politically
He has seen poll bumps after otr
charges or his liability in the e.g.,
and Carroll defamation case.
Should we expect another bump for him here?
You should absolutely expect th,
and you should also expect more
attention inside the Republican Party.
It has always been the case that
former President Trump has been
very successful at fundraising
when these kinds of efforts,
which he perceives as an attack on him,
have been carried out.
And so as these cases play out,
he's going to take advantage of.
Watch this weekend as he's in Georgia,
and you're going to see it very
clearly that they'll be a strong
Republican message about him beg
sent by his core constituents.
Now we understand that Governor
Rhonda Sanchez, who is his strot
competitor right now as far as e
Republican nomination is concer,
has actually spoken out against the charges.
What are you expecting to see?
Or the indictment?
Rather, what are you expecting o
see from other GOP candidates?
Yeah, this is
a difficult issue, right?
How do you attack the person
who is your opponent while also
recognized that he is way aheadf
you in the public opinion polls?
You want to be very careful abot
harming your party's prestige because
that can be damning longterm.
I think so much of it is going
to depend on what plays out as
we go through these charges.
Remember, there were over 100 documents
that were found at the Mar a Lago residence.
And what's distinguishing abouts
case is that the federal governt
asked for him to give the documents back.
So much of it depends on the kif
security surveillance video they have.
There seems to be an inside witness who
has information that may be dam.
And certainly shifting the case
to Florida is only going to help
the president because he's much
more popular there than he is i.
See where he only carried about 5% of
the vote in the 2016 or the 2020 elections.
So strategically that looks good for him,
but the evidence looks bad.
You kind of alluded to it a moment ago
accusations that this investigas
been politically motivated.
When you compare it to other
cases of missing documents like
with Joe Biden or Mike Pence.
What do you think that we'll
see more insight of this as
these charges and Republic?
You absolutely will see that and
the distinction here between the
Pence and the Biden documents.
Is that the National Archives
started in January 2021 trying
to get these documents back.
And so the raid on Mar a Lago,
certainly unprecedented and absolutely a
concern on a potential presidential opponent,
seems to have been facilitated y
the fact that they had informatn
that documents had been destroy.
When the National Archive
received documents back,
they had been ripped up.
There been allegations the President Trump,
President Trump threw documents away.
And so it's that kind of informn
that Jack Smith is really going
to have to build in the court
of public opinion if he's going
to be successful in this case.
OK. So thank you very much.
A lot more wait and see ahead.
Thank you. We'll see you next
time, Kimmy. You betcha.
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the federal indictment of
former President Donald Trump.
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