The indictment outlining federal charges against former President Donald Trump for alleged mishandling of classified documents has been unsealed, revaling he’s been charged with 37 felony counts.
The document released Friday, which also names Trump aide Walt Nauta, outlines criminal charges related to the over 100 classified documents federal agents recovered from Trump’s Florida resort in August of last year.
It accuses Trump of breaking seven different laws, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information and single counts of false statements and representations, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document, concealing a document in a federal investigation and a scheme to conceal.
It says the information Trump took with him when he left the White House “included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the U.S. and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for a possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.”
It also says that “On two occasions in 2021, Trump showed classified documents to others.
In one instance, Trump showed a writer, a publisher and two members of his staff who lacked security clearance a copy of a “plan of attack” that, according to a recording of Trump, he described as “highly confidential,” the indictment states.
In the second instance, Trump showed two members of his political action committee, neither of who had a security clearance, a “classified map related to a military operation,” the indictment alleges.
Both of those incidents occurred at Trump’s New Jersey golf club, which means the documents would have been transported there from Florida.
It also alleges the documents were stored haphazardly — including on the stage of the Mar-a-Lago ballroom for two months. They were also kept in a bathroom and a shower, the filing says.
