Washington – The landmark federal indictment filed against former President Donald Trump was released Friday, detailing charges the former president faces over his handling of sensitive government records after leaving the White House.
The 44-page indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleges that Trump ‘worked to obstruct FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal the retention of classified documents’ . The indictment names Walt Nauta, a Trump aide who served as a White House valet, as a co-conspirator.
The indictment lists 37 counts in total against Trump:
31 counts of willfully withholding classified documents1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice1 count of withholding a document or record1 count of corruptly concealing a document or record1 count of concealing a document in a federal investigation1 count of scheme to conceal and one count of false statements and representations.
At least four of the counts carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Trump was summoned to federal district court in Miami on Tuesday for arraignment.
Read the full text of the indictment against Trump hereWhat information was in the boxes stored by Trump?
“The classified documents that Trump stored in his boxes included information on the defense and armaments capabilities of the United States and foreign countries; the nuclear programs of the United States; the potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to a military attack; and possible retaliatory plans in response to a foreign attack,” the indictment states. “Unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could endanger the national security of the United States, foreign affairs, the security of U.S. military and human sources, and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence-gathering methods.”
The 38 counts – the final count, also of false statements, is specific to Nauta — stems from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of documents recovered from Trump’s South Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago, after he left the White House in January 2021. About 300 documents marked classified in all were recovered from Mar-a-Lago within a month of the end of Trump’s presidency.
The indictment states that Mar-a-Lago “was not an authorized place for the storage, possession, review, display or discussion of classified documents” after Trump left.
“Nevertheless, Trump stored his boxes containing classified documents in various locations within the Mar-a-Lago Club – including a ballroom, bathroom and shower, office, his bedroom and a storage room” , according to the filing, which includes photos showing boxes stacked on the ballroom stage and in a bathroom next to a shower and toilet.
Another photograph in the indictment shows a box in Mar-a-Lago’s storage room knocked over on the floor, with material leaking from it. The indictment states that on December 7, 2021, Nauta discovered the fallen box and texted an unidentified Trump employee, “I opened the door and found this…” along with two photos from the scene. Among the items in the box was a document marked “SECRET/REL TO USA, FVEY”, meaning it could only be released to the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, prosecutors said.
Trump allegedly showed classified documents to others
It also alleges that Trump has shown classified documents to others and notes that on several occasions the former president has spoken about the importance of protecting classified information, both as a candidate in 2016 and then as a candidate. as president. The former president did not inform the US Secret Service that he was storing files with classification marks at Mar-a-Lago.
According to the indictment, there were two occasions in 2021 when Trump showed classified documents to others. The first occurred in July 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, in a taped meeting with a writer, editor and two staff members, none of whom had security clearances. Trump “showed and described a ‘plan of attack’ which he said had been prepared for him by the Department of Defense” and called the plan “highly confidential” and “secret”. He then said, “As president, I could have declassified it… Now I can’t, you know, but it’s still a secret,” the filing said.
The second occasion took place weeks later, in August or September 2021, also on the Bedminster property. The indictment says that Trump showed an official of his political action committee, who also did not have a security clearance, a classified card related to a military operation and “told the representative that he shouldn’t show it and that the representative shouldn’t get too close”.
Trump “had some of his boxes moved” to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in May 2021, which the indictment said “was not an authorized location.”
Unlawful detention and obstruction
The indictment outlines efforts by the National Archives and Records Administration, then the Justice Department, to recover presidential records. These demands began with the Archives in May 2021 and escalated over the following 15 months, with a federal grand jury issuing a subpoena on May 11, 2022 for all documents bearing classification marks.
Attempts to retrieve the records culminated in an extraordinary search authorized by the Mar-a-Lago court by the FBI on August 8, 2022.
The FBI began its investigation into the alleged unlawful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in late March 2022, and a federal grand jury investigation began the following month.
Prosecutors detailed what they said were the former president’s efforts to obstruct the investigation, including suggesting that his lawyer falsely told investigators that Trump had no relevant documents for a subpoena. grand jury and ordering Nauta to move boxes of files to conceal them from Trump’s attorney. , the FBI and the grand jury.
He also suggested that his lawyer hide or destroy the documents covered by the subpoena, which was issued in the spring of 2022. Prosecutors allege that Trump ordered his lawyer to sign an “affidavit” stating that all classified documents had been turned over to the FBI – when Trump learned there were more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Government says Trump knew because he ‘ordered the boxes removed from the storage room [at Mar-a-Lago] before Trump 1’s attorney searched June 2, 2022 “for documents with classified marks. As a result, the search for Trump 1’s attorney” did not locate and did not locate “documents responding to the May 11 subpoena” – and were not provided to the FBI.
After the June 3, 2022 search, the government says “more than 100 documents with classification marks remained at the Mar-a-Lago club until the FBI search in August 2022”.
The indictment claims Trump kept classified documents “originating from, or involving the actions of” numbering agencies within the intelligence community, including the CIA, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the Bureau National Reconnaissance and the Departments of Energy, Defense and State.
The criminal case brought by federal prosecutors in Florida has nothing to do with the state fees leveled against him in April in New York. This indictment includes allegations of falsifying business records.
Smith is also examining efforts to stop the transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election and the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, and that investigation is still ongoing.
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