According to an unsealed copy of the indictment acquired by Fox News, former President Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts, including deliberate retention of national security secrets, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements.
On Friday, Special Counsel Jack Smith unveiled the indictment against the former president.
On Thursday night, Trump announced that he had been indicted. Trump told Fox News Digital that he will enter a not guilty plea.
According to the indictment, Trump had “lawful access to the most sensitive classified documents and national defense information gathered and owned by the United States government, including information from the agencies that comprise the United States Intelligence Community and the United States Department of Defense.”
“Over the course of his presidency, TRUMP gathered newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards, photographs, official documents, and other materials in cardboard boxes that he kept in the White House,” according to the indictment. “Among the materials TRUMP had stored in his boxes were hundreds of classified documents.”
“The classified documents TRUMP stored in his boxes included information regarding the 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 the indictment. “Unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could jeopardize US national security, foreign relations, the safety of US military and human sources, and the viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.”
The special counsel claims that Trump revealed classified documents to individuals twice in 2021, first in July 2021 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and secondly in August or September 2021 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
“In July 2021, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey (The Bedminster Club), TRUMP showed and described a ‘plan of attack’ that TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance.” “TRUMP informed the individuals that the plan was ‘highly confidential’ and’secret,'” according to the indictment. “TRUMP also said, ‘As president, I could have declassified it,’ and, ‘Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.'”
The special counsel alleges that in August or September 2021, Trump “showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation and told the representative that he should not be showing the representative and that the representative should not get too close.”
In March 2022, the FBI launched a criminal investigation into the illegal retention of secret information at Mar-a-Lago. In April 2022, the federal grand jury inquiry began.
“The grand jury issued a subpoena requiring Trump to turn over all documents with classification markings,” according to the indictment.
According to the special counsel, Trump “desired to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal his continued retention of classified documents” by having his attorney “falsely represent to the FBI and grand jury” that he “did not have documents called for by the grand jury subpoena.”
According to the indictment, Trump also advised his attorney to “hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena” and instructed his aide, defendant Watine Nauta, to “move boxes of documents called for by the grand jury subpoena, while claiming that he was cooperating fully.”
The indictment describes Nauta, a White House valet and then a personal aide, as Trump’s “co-conspirator.”
According to Smith, Trump kept classified information from the CIA, Pentagon, National Security Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, Energy Department, State Department, and Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
Smith claims Trump kept a document marked “releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.”
The FBI recovered 102 documents with classification markings in Trump’s office and storage room during an unusual raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
According to the accusation, there were 27 classified documents in Trump’s office, with six marked as top secret, 18 listed as secret, and three marked as confidential. 75 classified documents were discovered in the storage area, 11 of which were categorized as top secret, 36 as secret, and 28 as confidential.
Trump is charged with 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, including documents concerning White House intelligence briefings related to various foreign countries; documents concerning military capabilities of a foreign country and the US with handwritten annotation in black marker; a June 2020 document concerning a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities; an Oct. 21, 2018 document concerning communications with a foreign country’s leader; and a June 2020 document concerning a foreign country’s nuclear capabilities.
Trump is also accused with obstructing justice. The “purpose” of the conspiracy, according to the indictment, was for Trump “to keep classified documents he had taken with him from the White House and to hide and conceal them from a federal grand jury.”
Trump and Nauta were charged with two counts of withholding a document or record and one count of concealing a document in a federal inquiry, respectively.
In addition, Trump and Nauta were charged with one count of “scheme to conceal.”
In June 2022, Trump was charged with providing a false statement when he stated that a “diligent search” of Mar-a-Lago was undertaken; the search was conducted “after receipt of the subpoena;” and “any and all responsible documents accompany this certification.”
“The statements and representations set forth above were false, as Trump knew, because Trump had directed that boxes be removed from the Storage Room before Trump attorney 1 conducted the June 2, 2022 search for documents with classification markings, so Trump attorney 1’s search would not and did not include all of Trump’s boxes that were removed from the White House; Trump attorney 1’s search would not and did not locate all documents responsive to the May 11 subpoena; and Trump attorney 1’s search would not and did not locate all documents
“In fact, more than 100 documents with classification markings remained at The Mar-a-Lago Club after June 3, 2022, until the FBI search on August 8, 2022,” the indictment alleges.
Nauta was also charged with providing a false statement to the FBI about moving boxes during a voluntary interview on May 26, 2022.
