New Delhi: From sensitive documents being stored in the ballroom and the shower, to the disclosure of classified information in private meetings — former US President Donald Trump has been indicted on 37 charges in connection with the investigation into hundreds of classified documents that were taken to his Mar-a-Lago home after he left the White House.
The indictment unsealed Friday named the former President’s valet, Walt Nauta, as a co-defendant, alleging that he entered into a conspiracy with Trump to obstruct justice; withheld documents or records; corruptly concealed documents in a federal investigation; schemed to conceal documents; and made false and misleading statements.
It added that Trump was not authorised to store these documents at his Mar-a-Lago Club residence.
“Nevertheless, Trump stored his boxes containing classified documents in various locations at The Mar-a-Lago Club, including in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room,” the document said.
An indictment is a formal accusation and contains basic information informing a person of the charges against them.
For potential felony charges, a prosecutor presents evidence to an impartial group of 16 to 23 citizens called a grand jury. This jury looks at the evidence, listens to the prosecutor and the witnesses, and then votes in secret on whether they believe that enough evidence exists to charge the person with a crime.
After Trump left the White House following President Joe Biden’s arrival on 20 January 2021, he allegedly facilitated the transportation of several of these boxes with classified documents to his house at Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.
The indictment said that 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. However, among the materials, Trump stored hundreds of classified documents in his boxes, it added.
It said that the classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding defence and weapons capabilities of both the US and foreign countries, United States nuclear programmes, potential vulnerabilities of the country and its allies to military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.
“The unauthorised disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods,” the document noted.
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Classified documents on ballroom’s stage
The indictment claimed that after his presidency, Trump retained classified documents belonging to several US agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Security Agency (NSA).
Beginning May 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration, which was responsible for archiving presidential records, repeatedly demanded that Trump should turn over presidential records that he had kept after his presidency.
In March last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened a criminal investigation into the unlawful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago Club, and a federal grand jury investigation began the next month.
In May last year, the grand jury issued a subpoena requiring Trump to turn over all documents with classification markings.
The indictment alleged that, from January 2021 to 15 March 2021, some of these boxes were stored in Mar-a-Lago Club’s White and Gold Ballroom, in which events and gatherings took place. During this time, the boxes were allegedly stacked on the ballroom’s stage.
After being temporarily stored in the business centre of the club, two of Trump’s employees allegedly moved the boxes from the business centre to a bathroom and shower in Mar-a-Lago Club’s Lake Room, right next to a toilet seat, under a tiny chandelier, a photograph attached to the indictment showed.
Trump has also been accused of disclosing classified information in private meetings on at least two separate incidents in 2021.
One of the images attached to the indictment shows a box fallen on the floor, with its documents spilt onto the floor of the storage room.
This included a document marked “SECRET//REL 14 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”.
‘Pluck it out’
On 17 January last year, months after demands were made by the National Archives and Records Administration for Trump to provide all missing presidential records in 2021, he provided only 15 boxes, which contained 197 documents with classification markings.
In May last year, the grand jury issued a subpoena requiring Trump to turn over all documents with classification markings. The indictment alleged that Trump tried to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and continued retention of classified documents.
Following this, on 3 June, in response to a grand jury subpoena demanding the production of all documents with classification markings, Trump’s attorney provided 38 more documents with classification markings to the FBI.
The lawyer recalled that at the time, Trump suggested, “He made a funny motion as though – well okay why don’t you take them with you to your hotel room and if there’s anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out.”
The indictment also alleged that Trump directed Nauta to move boxes of documents to conceal them from Trump’s lawyer, the FBI and the grand jury.
Hours before Trump’s lawyer visited his Mar-a-Lago estate to search for documents in a storage room in June to comply with the subpoena, Trump asked Nauta to remove approximately 64 boxes from the storage room to Trump’s residence.
On 8 August, pursuant to a court-authorised search warrant, the FBI recovered 102 more documents with classification markings from Trump’s office and a storage room at The Mar-a-Lago Club.
They found 75 documents in the storage room, of which 11 were marked as “top secret”, 36 were “secret” and 28 were “confidential”.
In Trump’s office, they found 27 documents, of which six were marked “top secret”, 18 as “secret” and three were “confidential”.