Former President Donald Trump and his aide, Walt Nauta, have recently been confronted with an extensive 37-count indictment by the special counsel’s office.
The indictment accuses Trump of intentionally retaining highly sensitive national secrets, such as nuclear programs, even after leaving office. It further claims that he disclosed some of these documents on at least two occasions and attempted to impede the investigation into their location.
Federal prosecutors unveiled the indictment, focusing on Trump’s handling of government documents.
According to the court documents, the classified information encompassed various areas, including “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.”
According to federal prosecutors, the indictment states that boxes containing the aforementioned documents were reportedly kept in different areas within Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. “From January through March 15, 2021, some of TRUMP’s boxes were stored in The Mar-a-Lago Club’s White and Gold Ballroom, in which events and gatherings took place. TRUMP’s boxes were for a time stacked on the ballroom’s stage,” the indictment, said.
Further, The federal government accused Trump of orchestrating obstruction in the investigation by issuing instructions to his attorneys and aides. These instructions involved moving the boxes and preventing the federal government from accessing them.
As per the indictment, Trump reportedly communicated to his attorneys upon receiving a subpoena to return the documents, expressing his desire to prevent anyone from inspecting the boxes, stating, “I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t.”
Additionally, he posed the question, “What happens if we just don’t respond at all?” suggesting a potential course of action to evade compliance with the investigation.
The document reveals that Trump raised the suggestion, stating, “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here.” Then, “Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents?”
Trump is scheduled to appear in a federal court in Florida for his arraignment, Despite the allegations against him, Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing and criticized both the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney general’s office, referring to the investigation as a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
The indictment, spanning 49 pages, presents various forms of evidence, including transcripts, surveillance footage, lawyer’s notes, audio recordings, and other materials. Federal prosecutors assert that these pieces of evidence demonstrate Trump’s awareness of retaining highly classified documents, thereby jeopardizing national security. According to court documents, Trump initially suggested that the documents had been declassified, but later acknowledged in a recorded interview that they were indeed classified.
The prosecutors also described a text conversation between Walt Nauta and a Trump employee, wherein Nauta indicated that Trump was monitoring several boxes containing documents and intended to “go through” them and requested “new covers” for the boxes.
The indictment presented a meeting between Trump and two attorneys that took place after he was subpoenaed by investigators. During the meeting, the former president mentioned an attorney who allegedly deleted 30,000 emails belonging to an unidentified woman.
According to the indictment, Trump praised the attorney, stating, “He was great. She didn’t get in any trouble because he said that he was the one who deleted them.” It is worth noting that Trump had frequently criticized his 2016 election opponent, Hillary Clinton, over allegations of her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.
Despite these accusations, Clinton was never prosecuted.
Furthermore, prosecutors described a conversation between Walt Nauta and a member of the Trump family, shortly after Nauta removed numerous boxes from their storage location within Mar-a-Lago. This exchange was deemed potentially incriminating by the prosecutors.
According to the indictment, “On May 30, 2022, at 12:33 p.m., a member of the Trump family sent a text message to Walt Nauta, stating, “Good afternoon Walt, Happy Memorial Day! I saw you put boxes to Potus room. Just FYI and I will tell him as well: Not sure how many he wants to take on Friday on the plane. We will NOT have a room for them. Plane will be full with luggage. Thank you!”
Following the unsealing of the indictment, Special Counsel Jack Smith addressed reporters, emphasizing the importance of the laws that safeguard National Defense Information and the overall safety and security of the United States. Smith stated, “Our laws that protect National Defense Information are critical, the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced.”
He further emphasized the equal application of laws to all individuals, stating, “We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone applying those laws, collecting facts, that’s what determines the outcome of an investigation. Nothing more, nothing less.”
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