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Indictment charging Trump with mishandling classified documents unsealed Indictment charging Trump with mishandling classified documents unsealed
(32 minutes later)
Document marks justice department’s confirmation of criminal case against Trump arising from documents kept at Mar-a-Lago Trump took steps to retain classified documents subpoenaed by the justice department, according to a sprawling 38-count indictment
An indictment charging Donald Trump with mishandling classified documents, including US and foreign nuclear secrets, was unsealed on Friday afternoon. Donald Trump twice disclosed national security information in separate incidents in 2021 and took steps to retain classified documents that he knew he could not keep because they had been subpoenaed by the justice department, according to a sprawling 38-count indictment unsealed Thursday.
The document marks the justice department’s first official confirmation of a criminal case against the former US president arising from the retention of hundreds of documents at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, and includes 37 charges covering highly sensitive defense information and other matters. The charging papers also revealed Trump hoarded materials of the highest sensitivity after he left the White House, including documents on US nuclear programs, potential military vulnerabilities of the US and allies, and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack.
The alleged crimes detailed were more numerous and more serious than the public had initially been led to believe when the former president announced on Thursday night that he had been indicted on what was then understood to be seven federal charges and had swiftly brought senior Republicans rallying to his cause. The special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Mar-a-Lago documents case, said in a brief remarks Friday that his office intended to seek “a speedy trial” against Trump, adding that was “consistent with the public interest”. However, Smith did not say exactly when a trial may be possible.
The indictment reads that Trump stored in his boxes “included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack”, including classified maps. The unsealed indictment named the former president’s valet, Walt Nauta, as a co-defendant, alleging that he entered into a conspiracy with Trump to obstruct justice, withheld documents or records, corruptly concealed documents in a federal investigation, engaged in a scheme to conceal and made false statements.
“The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods,” the indictment stated. “The purpose of the conspiracy was for Trump to keep classified documents he has taken with him from the White House and to hide and conceal them from a federal grand jury,” the indictment said.
The indictment reads that some of the documents include some of the most sensitive US military secrets. Materials came from the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies, the court filing said. Federal prosecutors presented evidence that Trump shared materials concerning a US “plan of attack” against Iran at a July 2021 meeting at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, where he was recorded urging his guests to read the document while admitting it was “secret” and not declassified.
It also includes photographs of the boxes of materials Trump allegedly hoarded on a ballroom stage, in a club bathroom and in a storage room, where some were laying on the floor. The second incident in the indictment occurred months later in August or September 2021 when Trump shared a top secret military map with a staffer at his political action committee, but he admitted he should not be showing the map because it was classified and the staffer should not get too close.
Among the charges were how Trump described a Pentagon “plan of attack” and shared a classified map related to a military operation. Both meetings appeared to demonstrate that Trump knew not only the contents of the documents were related to national defense information, as described in the statute Trump was charged under, and that he knew he was disseminating their contents to people unauthorized to see them.
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” during a meeting at the Trump national golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the indictment read. The manner in which the material was stored – stuffed in boxes piled up in various locations around Mar-a-Lago including the ballroom, a toilet and the storage room – meant that Trump employees without security clearances were also inadvertently exposed to classified information.
It added: “Trump told the individuals that the plan was ‘highly confidential’ and ‘secret’.” In December 2021, the valet Nauta found that several boxes had toppled over and their contents – including a document marked “SECRET/REL TO USA, FVEY”. The markings indicate the document was releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance that includes the UK.
The indictment alleges that Trump also “endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents”. Nauta texted another Trump employee: “I opened the door and found this...” and sent two photos of the spill. One of the photos showed classified information. The employee replied: “Oh no oh no” and “I’m sorry potus had my phone,” using the acronym for the former president.
The former president tried to obstruct justice via the government’s investigations including by “suggesting that his attorney falsely represent to the FBI and grand jury that [he] did not have documents called for by the grand jury subpoena” and even “suggesting that his attorney hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena”. Prosecutors also presented detailed evidence that Trump moved to obstruct the criminal investigation by concealing classified documents from an attorney identified as his then-lawyer Evan Corcoran after the justice department issued a subpoena last May demanding their return.
Trump attacked the special counsel, Jack Smith, who is leading the Mar-a-Lago documents case, and also the federal investigation into the former president’s role in fomenting insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump wrote in a social media post of Smith that: “His wife is a Trump Hater, just as he is a Trump hater – a deranged ‘psycho’ that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with ‘justice’, other than to look at Biden as a criminal, which he is!” The indictment described how days after receiving the subpoena in late May 2022, Corcoran and another lawyer told Trump they needed to search Mar-a-Lago for any documents sought by the subpoena. But, according to the indictment, Trump was resistant.
The indictment also charged that Trump directed his valet and aide, Walt Nauta, to move boxes of records to conceal them from his attorney and the FBI. Trump asked Corcoran something to the effect of “What happens if we just don’t respond at all?” and “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?”, according to Corcoran’s notes that prosecutors obtained during the investigation.
Trump and Nauta both face a count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, according to the indictment. “The purpose of the conspiracy was for Trump to keep classified documents he has taken with him from the White House and to hide and conceal them from a federal grand jury,” the indictment said. Ordinarily off limits to prosecutors, the notes ended up before the grand jury in Washington hearing evidence in the case after a US appeals court pierced the attorney-client privilege Trump would otherwise have and ordered Corcoran to turn over his notes. The Guardian has previously revealed some of its contents.
Trump, who is a current 2024 presidential candidate, is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm ET. On Fox News Digital on Thursday night, he said he would plead not guilty. Corcoran then told Trump that he would return on 2 June 2022 to look in the Mar-a-Lago storage room for documents. In the intervening period, the indictment said, Trump instructed Nauta to remove boxes containing classified documents from where Corcoran intended to search.
After news of the indictment broke late on Thursday night, Trump’s rightwing allies rallied to his defense as America braces for the unprecedented spectacle of a former president forced to defend himself against federal criminal charges. On 1 June 2022, Trump spoke with Corcoran and asked whether he was still coming to the property. The next morning, Trump spoke with Nauta for 24 seconds. Hours later, Nauta and another Trump employee moved 64 boxes from the storage room to Trump’s residence and returned only 30 boxes.
The latest legal turmoil for Trump comes just two months after he pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in a case over hush-money payments to the former adult movie star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. Later that afternoon, after Nauta had put back some of the boxes, Nauta took Corcoran down to the storage room where he found 38 classified documents. After he finished his search, Trump is said to have asked Corcoran: “Did you find anything?... Is it bad? Good?”
Despite his many legal issues Trump, however, remains a dominant force in the Republican party, easily holding off – so far – a wide field of challengers for the party’s nomination to go up against Joe Biden in a battle for the White House next year. Indeed, the now multiple indictments have actually seen much of the party – and some 2024 rivals – rally around his cause. Corcoran recounted in his notes that Trump also made a “funny motion” when they were discussing whether Corcoran should take the 38 documents back with him to his hotel. As Corcoran described it, Trump seemed to indicate he should “pluck” any documents that were “bad”, without saying it explicitly.
Criminal charges in the Mar-a-Lago documents case deepen the legal peril for Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, after he was indicted earlier this year on state charges in New York.
Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami – about 70 miles from Mar-a-Lago – on Tuesday at 3pm. Still, he remains a dominant force in the Republican party, easily holding off a wide field of challengers for the party’s nomination to go up against Joe Biden in a battle for the White House next year.