Trump says has been indicted in classified documents probe

WASHINGTON, United States — Former US president Donald Trump said Thursday he has been indicted in the federal probe over his handling of classified documents after leaving office.

"The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax," Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social as he broke what would be bombshell news that he has been charged criminally for the second time.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Justice Department.

In his post, Trump, who is running for president again, said he has been summoned to a federal courthouse Tuesday in Miami. 

"I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former President of the United States," he wrote.

Trump's announcement came a day after US media said federal prosecutors have informed the former president's lawyers that he is the target of the probe into his handling of classified documents.

He was already the first former or sitting president to be charged with a crime -- in his case over election-eve hush money payments to a porn star who said she had an affair with him. That indictment came down in March.

Special counsel Jack Smith, named by Attorney General Merrick Garland, has been looking into a cache of classified documents that Trump had stored at his Mar-a-Lago residence after leaving the White House.

The FBI carted away some 11,000 papers after serving a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago in August, and Trump could face obstruction-of-justice charges after spending months resisting efforts to recover the trove.

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

He could conceivably be indicted in yet two other cases -- over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and his role in inciting the Capitol mob attack in 2021.