9 June 2023
(NewsNation) — A judge has unsealed the indictment against former President Donald Trump, revealing the charges he is facing in connection with classified documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago home.
Trump is charged with the willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheming to conceal, and making false statements and representations.
In a press conference, Smith urged the public to read the indictment in full to understand the scope and gravity of the charges.
“Our laws that protect national defense information are critical for the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced,” Smith said.
Smith referred to the U.S. as a nation of laws, laws which all people must be held accountable to. He said his team would be pursing a speedy trial in the case.
The indictment also charges Waltine Nauta, a member of the U.S. Navy stationed at the White House to act as Trump’s valet, with six counts. Trump and Nauta are set to be arraigned on Tuesday, June 13 at 3 p.m. in a federal courthouse in Miami.
The indictment alleges Trump gathered official documents, along with other materials, including newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards and photographs into cardboard boxes. Those boxes contained classified materials.
“The classified documents 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,” the indictment reads.
During the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, agents recovered 102 documents with classified markings. 27 of those were found in Trump’s office and 75 were in a storage room. Of those, 27 were marked Top Secret, 54 were marked secret and 31 were marked confidential.
The documents included papers from a number of federal agencies, including the CIA, the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency.
According to the indictment, those documents were taken to Mar-a-Lago where they were stored in unauthorized locations, including at one point being stored in a shower. It details two occasions where Trump showed sensitive documents to people not authorized to view them.
One incident involved a writer and publisher, along with two staff members, who interviewed Trump at The Bedminster Club. Trump allegedly showed the group a plan to attack a foreign country, devised by a senior military official. The indictment did not name the country, but according to reporting from CNN, the plan was regarding Iran.
“Well, with (the Senior Military Official)-uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack (Country A). Isn’t it amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this-this is off the record, but they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him,” Trump said, according to the indictment.
Later on in the exchange, Trump said he could have declassified the paper when he was president, before noting that he could not do so once leaving office so it was still secret. According to the indictment, none of the individuals had clearance to access those documents.
The second incident involved a representative from Trump’s political action committee. During a meeting, Trump allegedly commented about an ongoing operation in an unspecified country before showing the person a classified map.
According to the indictment, Trump acknowledged that he should not be showing the representative the map, telling him not to stand too close.
The indictment also claims Trump worked with Nauta to conceal documents from search and suggested that his attorneys make false statements to the FBI, as well as suggesting they hide or destroy documents that had been requested by a grand jury.
The indictment includes statements attributed to Trump, including “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” and “What happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?”
After the FBI and the grand jury issued a subpoena for the documents, Trump and Nauta reportedly misled the attorney charged with searching the boxes and turning the materials over. Trump reportedly directed Nauta to move boxes so they attorney would not find all of the documents to give to a federal grand jury.
Trump responded to the indictment on his social network, Truth Social, Trump accused President Joe Biden of also mishandling classified documents, lashing out at Special Counsel Jack Smith and claiming he was allowed to take the documents with him.
“….Biden had records for years, totally unsecured, even stolen when he was a Senator. This is crazy! Just like Jack Smith, Lisa Monaco, and the man they sent to the D.A.’s Office, Matt Colangelo. It isn’t America anymore. Under the Presidential Records Act, I’m allowed to do all this. Under the Clinton Socks Case, the decision is clear. There was no crime, except for what the DOJ and FBI have been doing against me for years,” one post read.
Another said, “Biden moved his Boxes all over the place, including to Chinatown and up to his lawyer’s office in Boston. Why isn’t deranged Jack Smith looking at that? Also, I supplied them openly, and without question, security tape from Mar-a-Lago. I had nothing to hide, nor do I now. Nobody said I wasn’t allowed to look at the personal records that I brought with me from the White House. There’s nothing wrong with that….”