Former President Trump was indicted on 37 counts, including 31 Espionage Act violations, as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.
The 49-page indictment released Friday by the Justice Department shows that President Trump kept boxes of classified documents in various locations in Mar-a-Lago, including the ballroom, bathrooms, showers, office, bedroom and warehouse. is detailed.
According to the indictment, classified and top-secret records contained details about foreign nuclear capabilities, as well as information about U.S. and foreign defense and weapons capabilities. US nuclear program. Potential Vulnerability of the United States and Allies to Military Attacks. It plans possible retaliation in response to an attack.
Trump’s personal aide, Walt Nauta, was also charged as a co-conspirator.
“He’s done a great job! They’re trying to destroy Nauta’s life in hopes of saying bad things about ‘Trump’, as well as the lives of so many others,” he said. The president spoke about Nauta in a post on Truth Social.
No specific charges against Mr. Nauta, a Navy veteran who frequently sided with President Trump at the White House, have been released. The special prosecutor’s investigation has focused in part on Nauta, a maintenance worker moving a box out of a storage room before the FBI executed a search warrant at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. It is reported that the figure of Nauta is reflected in the video of the surveillance camera that helps the police.
President Trump announced in a social media post on Thursday that he was indicted in connection with handling classified records and was ordered to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday afternoon. The indictment comes nearly a year after more than 100 classified documents were found during an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
The special counsel is expected to issue an official statement late Friday. The lawsuit appears to have been initially directed against U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon, appointed by President Trump to handle his case last year over an FBI investigation.
President Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and reiterated his innocence late Thursday. On Friday, he announced a restructuring of his legal team, appointing New York-based attorney Todd Blanche and his later-named firm to replace Jim Trusty and John Rowley. Blanche is backing Trump’s separate indictment of 34 felonies related to allegedly paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels late in the 2016 campaign.
In a joint statement, Trusty and Lowry said it was “the right time” to step down as the case moved to Miami.
Trump and his allies quickly branded the new indictments as an attempt to discredit political opponents, with some lawmakers, including Senator Josh Hawley (R, Missouri), faking legal proceedings. .
Hawley, a lawyer and former state attorney general, tweeted: “There would be no republic if those in power could imprison their political opponents at will.”
Such allegations ignore that it was the grand jury that recommended the charges based on the evidence presented, and determined Trump’s guilt or innocence to the charges based on the evidence provided in open court. It is the jury that does.
