I'm Stephanie Sy.

Welcome to the news hour.

We have major breaking news to report.

News hour has confirmed that former president Donald Trump has been indicted.

This makes him the first former U.S. president in history to be indicted on federal charges.

In a post on Truth, Social, Trump said he had been indicted, quote, over what he called the boxes hoax.

That is a reference to the boxes found at his Mar a Lago estate by the FBI last August, which contained classified materials.

The former president goes on to say that he has been summoned to appear at the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday at 3 p.m.. For more on this developing story.

I'm joined by NewsHour's White House correspondent Laura Baron Lopez.

Laura, good evening.

I know that the details are still sketchy, that the indictment is still under seal.

But what is being reported so far?

So, Stephanie, right now, the special counsel's office has not confirmed this indictment.

We should know that.

Note that.

And they told me not to expect anything from them tonight.

But what news hour has confirmed from a source with direct knowledge is that the former president has been instructed to And we don't have we have not confirmed all of the specific charges that are related to this.

But multiple outlets are saying that the president is being charged with seven counts and that they are related to his We're talking about the willful retention of national defense documents.

Now, that's related to the Espionage Act, Stephanie.

And I spoke to a former Pentagon special counsel just now who said that the reason those charges are being brought in is because they're focusing on the retention, not the removal of these classified documents, but the retention also That's knowingly holding on to a record that has been subpoenaed by the federal government and then refusing to turn it over.

That's what that's about, because the president was subpoenaed, the former president was subpoenaed last year by the All right.

Because there are there are federal laws about what you're supposed to do with classified documents after you leave the Right.

We have been reporting on the special counsel's investigation ramping up, especially in recent days in paneling a special grand Remind us what other significant moments led up to this indictment.

Well, there's been a lot of big moments, Stephanie, since summer of last year, starting with the fact that the former president We learned that first from the former president and all along the way, the refusal to hand them over the rejection of a The potential charges based on the reports that we're seeing are laying out.

They weren't surprised by anything that they were seeing coming out tonight.

Yeah, well, this folks on the right, politicians are already saying this is a political prosecution.

How momentous is this indictment, Laura, and what does it mean for Trump's presidential campaign?

It's certainly an unprecedented moment right now in American history that a former president could potentially be indicted And now, though, Stephanie, this does not stop him from continuing his run for his reelection bid, his run for the This does not stop him, even if he's convicted and if even if he were to potentially face prison time.

Now, a lot of legal experts doubt that he will.

But this does not stop him at all from running and potentially serving in the presidency again.

Yeah, And in fact, the Trump campaign has already sent out a fundraising email surrounding the indictment.

Correspondant Laura Baron Lopez.

Thank you so much for joining us on News Hour West.

Laura We'll have much more detail and analysis on the federal indictment of President Donald Trump on the NewsHour In the.