Trump indictment details plot to hide sensitive documents
Federal prosecutors in the United States have unsealed a sweeping indictment against former President Donald Trump alleging that he hoarded and concealed classified documents containing sensitive national security information.
The 49-page document contained 37 federal charges against Trump. Thirty-one of the charges relate to violations of the Espionage Act, which criminalizes the unauthorized possession of national defense information. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of ten years.
Six other charges relate to Trump’s alleged plan to hide the documents when federal authorities launched an investigation. Two others accuse the ex-president of making false statements to detectives.
Trump’s aide, Waltine “Walt” Nauta, was also charged with six counts of concealment of documents and making false statements.
“Our laws protecting national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced,” said Special Counsel Jack Smith, who represents the U.S. Justice Department. appointed to oversee the November investigation.
“Violations of those laws endanger our country,” he continued, making remarks during a brief three-minute press conference on Friday. “We have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone.”
Trump, in turn, insisted he had done nothing wrong. He also attacked Prosecutor Smith as a “deranged lunatic”, saying he had given investigators the material they requested.
“I openly and without question supplied them with security tape from Mar-a-Lago. I had nothing to hide, and I don’t now,” the former president wrote on his Truth Social site.
“Nobody said I couldn’t look into the personal information I took from the White House. There’s nothing wrong with that,” Trump added.
Indictment has high demands
But the indictment unsealed by Justice Department prosecutors told a very different story.
It claimed Trump kept boxes of “information on 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.”
The indictment also indicated that the contents of those boxes, if released, could have devastating consequences.
“The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could pose a risk to the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the security of the United States military and human resources, and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence gathering methods,” it said. the explanation.
Prosecutors explained that the documents were stored haphazardly on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, including in unsecured locations such as a bathroom, ballroom and shower.
A photo released by prosecutors showed documents spilled on the floor of a storage unit that were “accessible through multiple exterior entrances, including one that was accessed from the pool deck of the Mar-a-Lago Club through a doorway that was often left open” .
Some of the documents contain secret markings indicating that they would only be released to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which consists of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US.
Alleged attempts to conceal
As federal investigators began their investigation into the classified documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago, the former president either failed to comply with the order or outright lied, according to the indictment.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” Trump allegedly said, as one of his lawyers told federal investigators. “Well look, isn’t it better if there are no documents?”
That exchange came in the wake of a May 2022 subpoena demanding Trump turn over all classified documents in his possession.
The indictment further accuses Trump of “causing” his lawyers to falsely state that Mar-a-Lago had been thoroughly searched and all documents located, in accordance with the subpoena.
In addition, prosecutors allege, Trump has instructed his aide Nauta to move 64 boxes to “hide them from Trump’s attorney, the FBI and the grand jury.” On Friday, Trump defended Nauta, calling him “strong, brave and a great patriot.”
Documents revealed to visitors
Prosecutors have also said that Trump treated the classified documents lightly when they were in his possession.
In one instance, Trump reportedly moved some records to his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. There, according to the indictment, he showed “a secret map related to a military operation” to a person who worked for his political action committee.
He told the visitor that “he was not allowed to show it to the representative and that the representative was not allowed to get too close,” according to the indictment.
In another case, an audio recording revealed that Trump showed a “highly confidential” military document to a visiting writer and publisher, the indictment said.
“As president I could have declassified it, and now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” Trump is said to have said. American media previously reported on the interaction.
However, Trump’s statement in that case could prove particularly damning, as the ex-president has maintained that he released all documents before leaving office. However, he has provided no evidence that he has taken any action to lower their classification status.
A long-standing saga
The unsealed indictment represents the culmination of a year-long saga that began in May 2021, when the National Archives — which holds presidential documents — demanded missing documents be returned.
Trump’s team has turned in 15 boxes by January 2022, 14 of which contain classified documents. The National Archives later reported that some of it had returned torn to pieces.
In May 2022, the Department of Justice had issued a subpoena requiring all remaining documents to be surrendered. Finally, figuring there were more documents left at Mar-a-Lago, the FBI raided the resort in August and recovered 102 classified documents.
Now the case is going to federal court, where Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon has reportedly been tapped to oversee the proceedings in the first instance. She was thrust into the limelight last year when she issued a decree appointing a “special master” in the investigation of classified documents.
Cannon also briefly banned federal agents and prosecutors from reviewing a batch of seized documents, an order that was eventually thrown out in a damning opinion by a federal appeals court.
Trump will appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, where the Secret Service was already planning logistics.
Impact on the 2024 race
Trump’s allies and even Republican presidential opponents were quick to seize on the revelations in Friday’s indictment, which the former president called a “witch hunt.”
He also framed the federal charges as an attempt to undermine his candidacy in the 2024 presidential race. Trump is currently polling well ahead of the overcrowded Republican field.
But many prominent Republicans have stood behind the former president. His main Republican competitor in the 2024 race, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, condemned the “arming of federal law enforcement as a mortal threat to a free society.”
Top Democrats, meanwhile, rallied around the phrase, “No one is above the law.”
“This charge must now be played out through the legal process, without any outside political or ideological interference,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement.
On Friday, Trump abruptly parted ways with his lawyers, James Trusty and John Rowley, and appointed Todd Blanche — a former federal prosecutor — to lead his defense.
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reported from Washington, D.C., that Trusty had been a “loud defender” of Trump, advocating for him on television networks hours before the announcement.