Former first lady Melania Trump will speak at an immigrant naturalization ceremony hosted by the National Archives next week, 22 months after the agency asked the Justice Department to investigate her husband.
Trump, 53, is herself a naturalized citizen, and she will provide remarks along with Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan at the Dec. 15 ceremony, where 25 people from 25 nations will be sworn in as new US citizens, the National Archives announced Monday.
Beginning in May 2021, the agency repeatedly requested that the former first lady’s husband, former President Donald Trump, hand over documents that he may have retained after leaving office, threatening to refer the matter to the Justice Department if he were not to comply.
The following year, in January, Trump, 77, turned over 15 boxes of presidential records to the National Archives that contained 197 documents with classified markings, including 69 marked confidential, 98 secret and 30 top secret.
The agency notified the DOJ of its discovery in February 2022, and the following month the FBI opened its investigation into Trump’s handling of classified material.
As part of the FBI’s investigation, agents raided the Trumps, Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022, sifting through Melania’s closet and other parts of Palm Beach, Fla., property in search of White House documents.
The investigation culminated in Trump’s indictment by a federal grand jury on 40 felony counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record and willful retention of national defense information.
His trial in the case is slated to begin on May 20, 2024.
Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner, has denied any wrongdoing.
Melania’s expected appearance at the National Archives event in Washington, DC, will come weeks after she made a rare public appearance at the memorial service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter in Georgia.
Melania was joined by first lady Jill Biden and former first ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton at the somber ceremony in honor of former President Jimmy Carter’s wife.
The citizenship swearing-in event will be held in the historic National Archives Rotunda, where several of the nation’s founding documents, including the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, are housed.