NBC News has the full federal indictment in the Trump classified documents case:
The federal government’s indictment of former President Donald Trump and his aide, Walt Nauta, was unsealed Friday.
The document outlines criminal charges related to the over 100 classified documents federal agents recovered from Trump’s Florida resort last August.
The charges make Trump, who was impeached twice, the first former president to ever face federal criminal charges.
Read the full document here.
Special Counsel Jack Smith is to make a statement at 3:00 p.m. ET (Noon Arizona time).
UPDATE: NBC News discusses some the damning evidence. Live updates: Trump classified documents indictment is unsealed:
Trump employee took photo of docs strewn on floor in storage room
Nauta, the Trump employee facing criminal charges along with his boss, walked into a storage room at Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 7, 2021, only to find various papers strewn on the floor, including one marked “secret,” according to the newly-unsealed indictment.
The document contained markings indicating it could only be viewed by members of the so-called “five eyes” intelligence agencies (the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand), the indictment said.
Upon seeing the mess, Nauta took photos and texted them to another Trump employee. One of the photos shows a classified document, the indictment alleged.
“Oh no oh no,” the unnamed second Trump employee responded.
Classified documents Trump stored at Mar-a-Lago included U.S. military info, including on nuclear programs
The classified documents that Trump stored at Mar-a-Lago included information “regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries” as well as on U.S. nuclear programs, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors also said the classified documents included information about “potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack” and “plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. “
“The unauthorized 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 indictment says.
Trump ‘showed classified documents to others’ on two occasions in 2021, indictment says
The indictment says that the former president showed classified documents to other people on two occasions in 2021.
The first time was in July 2021 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, during an audio-recorded meeting “with a writer, a publisher and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance,” the filing says.
NBC News reported last week that the special counsel had obtained that audio recording of the meeting.
The former president “showed and described a ‘plan of attack’ ” that he said “was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official,” the indictment says. He “told the individuals that the plan was ‘highly confidential’ and ‘secret,’ ” it says.
During that meeting, Trump also acknowledged that he could have declassified the document as president. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” he told the group, according to the indictment.
In August or September 2021, also at Bedminster, 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 it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close,” the indictment says.
Trump alleged to have asked his attorney to hide or destroy subpoenaed documents
The 49-page federal indictment unsealed today alleges that Trump suggested that one of his attorneys “hide or destroy documents called for by the grand jury subpoena.”
That subpoena required Trump to turn over all documents with classification markings.
The indictment alleges Trump took other actions to obstruct the probe, too, including suggesting an attorney “falsely represent” to federal investigators and the grand jury that he did not possess the documents being sought.
Trump faces 37 counts on seven charges
Trump faces 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, a count of withholding a document or record, a count of corruptly concealing a document or record, a count of concealing a document in a federal investigation, a count of scheming to conceal, and a count of false statements and representations.
Each of the charges carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and prison time of five to 20 years.
In indictment, prosecutors include a series of statements on classified documents Trump made during the 2016 campaign
Trump spent months during the 2016 campaign assailing his then-Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, over her use of a private email server while in office.
In doing so, he made multiple pledges that in his administration, laws regarding mishandling classified documents would be strongly enforced.
The indictments includes a series of statements Trump made on classified document retention during the 2016 presidential campaign
8/2016: "In my administration I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law." pic.twitter.com/MbURmzd3YO
— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) June 9, 2023
Today, prosecutors circled back to a number of those proclamations in their indictment of Trump in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents probe.
“In my administration I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” Trump said in August 2016, as prosecutors noted. “No one will be above the law.”
UPDATE:
The evidence detailed in the 44-page Trump indictment makes clear: Trump. Is. Done. Because #JusticeMatters https://t.co/oynvfWAPcB
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) June 10, 2023
It’ll be an outrage if those who get to see justice done — whatever the jury’s verdict — are arbitrarily limited to the handful who can squeeze into a small courtroom. The First and Ninth Amendments give the public a RIGHT to watch. See Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia (1980). https://t.co/yXe6Cjd5ur
— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) June 9, 2023
UPDATE: If you will not read the indictment, you can listen as Ali Velshi reads it to you. No excuses.
EXCLUSIVE: In a special new episode of the “Prosecuting Donald Trump” podcast, @AliVelshi reads every word of the historic 37-count federal indictment against Donald Trump. Listen now: https://t.co/fkRgdweRh4 pic.twitter.com/kRz5nuJLyE
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 11, 2023
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I avoid Trump as much as possible, but I have to wonder why he wanted all these documents in his possession.
He showed them to certain people seemingly to show off.
I’m guessing the documents attest to his being the most powerful person in the world for four years. To him they might be like trophies.
Given his grifter mentality, maybe he thought he could sell them.
Okay, that’s enough Trump for me.
Here’s Jack Smith. He doesn’t look or sound like a badass but I guess looks can deceive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1VI0f8vnfE
Fun fact about Jack Smith.
He is married to documentary filmmaker Katy Chevigny whose work includes “Becoming” based on Michelle Obama’s 2018 memoir.