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Washington, DC – In a groundbreaking development, a 37-count criminal indictment against Donald Trump, the former U.S. president, was unsealed on Friday. The charges illuminate accusations of willful retention of hundreds of classified government records at Trump’s Florida residence post-presidency, along with allegations of a conspiracy to hinder their return to U.S. authorities.
The indictment, issued by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Miami, was made public just a day after the group decided on Trump’s indictment. Among numerous allegations, the indictment highlights instances where Trump supposedly displayed classified documents to various individuals during the summer of 2021, months after vacating the White House.
One such classified document, as per the indictment, was a “plan of attack” shared with a publisher and writer at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, which Trump claimed was prepared by the Pentagon. Further down the line at Bedminster, Trump showed a representative of a political action committee “a classified map related to a military operation,” advising caution about viewing it too closely.
Also named in the indictment is Trump’s valet, Walter Nauta, who is facing similar charges and is alleged to have conspired with Trump in keeping and concealing the classified records from a federal grand jury.
According to the indictment, Trump was personally involved in packing and transporting boxes of classified documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. An FBI raid in August uncovered these documents, which Trump had failed to relinquish to U.S. officials, despite repeated attempts over a year to reclaim them.
The indictment says in part, “On December 7, 2021, Nauta found several of Trump’s boxes fallen and their contents spilled onto the floor of the Storage Room [at Mar-a-Lago] including a document marked “SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY,” which denoted that the information in the document was releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.”
Photos of Alleged Classified Documents As They Were Allegedly Found by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club Residence in Florida
[envira-gallery id=”1219″]The indictment’s charges include mishandling information about U.S. defense and weapons capabilities, nuclear programs, and potential vulnerabilities to military attacks. Trump reportedly stored these documents in various locations within Mar-a-Lago, amidst hosting more than 150 social events that attracted tens of thousands of guests.
Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, who led the probe, reiterated the importance of the rule of law in a televised statement, stating, “We have one set of laws in this country and they apply to everyone.”
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL INDICTMENT DOCUMENTS
