Donald Trump says he has been indicted again

Donald Trump says he has has been indicted in relation to boxes of documents found at his Florida home.

Writing on Truth Social, the former US president said the Biden administration informed his attorneys he had been indicted “seemingly over the boxes”.

He did not provide evidence and the claims have not yet been confirmed by the US Justice Department.

Mr Trump added that he had been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3pm local time.

He continued: “I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting President in the History of our Country, and is currently leading, by far, all Candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in Polls of the 2024 Presidential Election. I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!”

Within 20 minutes of posting his announcement, Mr Trump had begun fundraising off it for his 2024 presidential campaign.

The US Justice Department has been investigating whether Mr Trump mishandled classified documents he retained after leaving the White House in 2021.

Investigators seized roughly 13,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, nearly a year ago. One hundred were marked as classified, even though one of Trump’s lawyers had previously said all records with classified markings had been returned to the government.

Trump has previously defended his retention of documents, suggesting he declassified them while president. However, Trump has not provided evidence of this and his attorneys have declined to make that argument in court filings.

The investigation into the documents is largely seen as Mr Trump’s biggest legal headache.

In the US, it is a crime for someone who has custody of government records to “willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies or destroys” them.

But it remains unclear what the immediate and long-term political consequences would be.

His first indictment in March spurred millions of dollars in contributions from angry supporters and didn’t damage his poll ratings.

Trump’s legal troubles extend beyond the New York indictment and classified documents case.

The special counsel has a separate probe underway focused on efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. And the district attorney in Georgia’s Fulton County is investigating Trump over alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election in that state.