(The Center Square) – Former President Donald Trump’s most recent indictment was made public Friday. The 49-page document appears to lay out nearly 40 federal counts against Trump for his handling of classified documents and his alleged refusal to hand them over to federal officials until the eventual raid on his Florida estate.

News of the indictment sent shockwaves through the political world and left Republicans taking sides for or against the former president, who is also the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential race.

“As a result of Trump’s retention of classified documents after his presidency and his refusal to return them, hundreds of classified documents were not recovered by the United States government until 2022,” the indictment says, adding that Trump kept documents from a range of federal groups, including the CIA, FBI, Department of Defense, National Security Agency, and more.

The former president has repeatedly claimed that he had the authority as president to automatically declassify documents, but the indictment says Trump did not have the right to hold on to those documents, saying they were still classified.

“Trump was not authorized to possess or retain classified documents,” it reads.

The indictment also makes the point that Trump kept the documents in unsecure areas where staff and others could have accessed them. The indictment further alleges that Trump twice showed classified documents to others well after he was no longer president.

From the indictment:

In July 2021, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey ("The Bedminster Club"), during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance, TRUMP showed and described a "plan of attack" that TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official. TRUMP told the individuals that the plan was "highly confidential" and "secret." TRUMP also said, "as president I could have declassified it," and, "Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."

In August or September 2021, at The Bedminster Club, TRUMP showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation and told the representative that he should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close.

Many Republicans were quick to blast the indictment, the first time a former president has been indicted by the federal government.

“In over two centuries of our nation's history, no new president has ever launched the entire machinery of justice on a vendetta to persecute, attack, investigate, indict, [and] jail the former president,” U.S> Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote on Twitter.

Criticisms focused on the fact that President Joe Biden’s Justice Department was indicting the frontrunner for the opposing political party, an unprecedented move in U.S. politics.

"It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him,” said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades.

Other critics took aim at the fact that Biden has made similar mistakes with classified documents but has not been indicted. Federal law enforcement officers seized classified documents found in his garage at his Delaware home as well as at a private office used by Biden. Biden also admitted he had the documents publicly. The classified documents come from after his time as vice president ended years ago. Notably, a portion of the documents were kept at a Washington, D.C. think tank that has received substantial funding from Chinese donors.

Former Vice President Mike Pence also had classified documents at his Indiana home, but the DOJ decided not to prosecute him last week. Hillary Clinton was infamously under investigation for alleged classified information in her emails, many of which were deleted, and were kept on a private server. She was never indicted. 

"There does seem to be far higher interest in pursuing Trump compared to other people in politics," billionaire and Twitter owner Elon Musk wrote on Twitter. "Very important that the justice system rebut what appears to be differential enforcement or they will lose public trust."

Responding to the criticism, special prosecutor Jack Smith said his office followed the law in securing the indictment.

"We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone," Smith said at a Friday news conference after the indictment was unsealed. "That's what determines the outcome of an investigation. Nothing more and nothing less."

Trump also was indicted by a New York grand jury for a different state matter involving payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.