The federal indictment said Trump mishandled classified documents containing information about America’s secret nuclear program and potential US national vulnerabilities in the event of an attack.
According to the indictment, Trump discussed with his attorneys the possibility of lying to government officials seeking to retrieve the documents, storing some of them in boxes near restrooms, and distributing boxes containing some of the documents. around his home in Mar-a-Lago. , Florida, so authorities wouldn’t find them.
The indictment quotes Trump as saying to one of his attorneys, “Wouldn’t it be better if we told them we don’t have anything here?”
The Justice Department announced the 49-page indictment a day that saw the resignation of two of Trump’s lawyers in the case. The indictment includes 37 counts against Trump. Walt Nauta, a former Trump aide, also faces charges in the case.
Trump is due in court for the first time in the case in Miami on Tuesday, just a day before he turns 77.
Because Trump will immediately serve all sentences if convicted, the maximum prison sentence he faces is 20 years for obstruction of justice.
“Our laws protecting national defense information are essential to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced,” U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who leads the prosecutors, said in a brief statement.
“Our laws are the same in this country and they apply to everyone,” he added.
Trump declared his innocence in the case. But after the charges came to light, Smith attacked via social media.
“He’s a deranged ‘Trump’ hater who shouldn’t care about any justice-related issues,” he wrote on his social media platform, TruthSocial.
One of the documents deals with foreign country support for terrorism, in violation of US interests.
The indictment said these government documents came from the Pentagon, CIA, National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies.
Prosecutors said Trump showed another person a Department of Defense document that described him as a “plan of attack” against another country.
They added that Trump conspired with Nauta to keep classified documents he took from the White House and hid from a federal grand jury. Naota faces six charges in the case.
Naota lied to the FBI when he told them he didn’t know how certain documents were moved to Trump’s suite at Mar-a-Lago when in fact he was involved in moving them from a storage room , according to the indictment.
Trump kept the documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and at his golf club in New Jersey. The indictment says the station hosted tens of thousands of guests at more than 150 events during the time the documents were there.
Prosecutors said the unlawful disclosure of classified documents could threaten US national security, foreign relations and intelligence gathering.
Never before in US history has a federal court indicted a former US president, and the indictment comes at a time when Trump’s chances of winning the Republican nomination in next year’s presidential election are rising .
About a year ago, investigators seized nearly 13,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. And 100 of those documents have been classified, although one of Trump’s lawyers said earlier that all classified documents have been returned to the government.
Trump appoints a judge
Trump had said he declassified those documents when he was president, and his attorneys declined to make that argument in court papers.
A knowledgeable source said Friday that Judge Eileen Cannon was initially assigned to hear the case. The source, who declined to be identified, added that Cannon could also preside over the trial.
Cannon, who was nominated by Trump in 2019, made headlines last year when she came out in favor of the former US president at a pivotal point in the case before overturning the decision on appeal.
Canon will, among other things, set a trial date and sentencing for Trump, if found guilty.
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