Donald Trump, a former president, is accused of improperly handling hundreds of classified documents, including ones containing military and nuclear secrets of the US.

He is charged with maintaining the documents at his Florida house, including in a ballroom and a shower, and lying to investigators, according to the 37-count indictment.

The claim is that he then attempted to hamper the probe into the management of the materials.

Trump, who will compete for president once more in 2024, rejects any accusations of impropriety.

Walt Nauta, a personal assistant to Mr. Trump, has also been charged. The former White House military valet is charged with shifting documents so that the FBI wouldn’t find them.

The first-ever criminal accusations against a former US president are contained in the 49-page indictment. According to the report, the confidential papers Mr. Trump kept in his crates included details about:

American nuclear initiatives
both American and foreign countries’ arsenals and defense capabilities
Potential points of weakness for a military attack against the United States and its allies
Plans for potential reprisal in the event of an attack from abroad
Approximately 300 secret documents, according to the prosecution, were taken by Mr. Trump from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his beachfront residence in Palm Beach that doubles as a sizable private members’ club.

According to the charge sheet, Mar-a-Lago hosted gatherings for tens of thousands of members and visitors, including in the ballroom where the discovered documents were kept.

According to the prosecution, Mr. Trump suggested that his lawyer “hide or destroy” the missing documents or lie to investigators about having them in order to thwart the FBI’s investigation.

Wouldn’t it be better if we simply told them that we have nothing to offer? As reported in the indictment, Mr. Trump allegedly stated to one of his attorneys.

On Tuesday, the night before he turns 77, Mr. Trump will make his first court appearance in the case in Miami, Florida.

documents pictured being kept in a Mar-a-Lago ballroom in Donald Trump’s indictment
DOJ, IMAGE SOURCE
picture caption
At Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Donald Trump’s resort, files were kept there.
The indictment claims that Mar-a-Lago “was not an authorized location” for the storage or discussion of secret documents.

Some documents were purportedly kept in the ballroom’s stage area, where events and gatherings were held, as well as Mr. Trump’s bedroom, office, bathroom, and shower.

The former president exposed sensitive information to a reporter and two staff employees twice in 2021 while they lacked security clearance.

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He is alleged to have shown and discussed a “plan of attack” that he claimed had been developed for him by the Department of Defense at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, which was allegedly a “unauthorized location.”

“As president, I had the option of declassifying it. According to an audio recording, Mr. Trump allegedly remarked, “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

I did nothing wrong, says the caption for the video. We’ll battle it out.

Then, according to the prosecution, Mr. Trump displayed secret materials once more at the Bedminster club in August or September 2021.

The former US president “displayed a classified map to a member of his political action committee who lacked a security clearance.”

Mr. Trump advised the individual that they “should not get too close” and that “he should not be showing it” to them because it “related to a military operation”.

The investigation’s special counsel, Jack Smith, stated on Friday that laws protecting national defense secrets were essential and needed to be upheld.

He made a brief remark in Washington that read, “We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone.”

At Mar-a-Lago, a bathroom with a chandelier and a toilet is filled with boxes of paperwork.
DOJ, IMAGE SOURCE
picture caption
Images of documents kept in a shower were included in the indictment.
Mr. Smith was denounced by Mr. Trump as a “deranged lunatic” in a social media post.

He should not be involved in any issue involving “justice” since he is a disturbed “psycho,” the author claimed on his Truth Social platform.

Mr. Trump cited the discovery of confidential documents in President Joe Biden’s former workplace and Delaware residence, which included his garage.

The White House has previously claimed that it cooperated with authorities right away after learning about such materials, in contrast to Mr. Trump’s alleged efforts to obstruct investigators.

Special Counsel Robert Hur is in charge of a federal inquiry into Mr. Biden’s handling of top-secret documents, which is currently ongoing.

Two of Mr. Trump’s attorneys abruptly left the case without giving much of an explanation just before the Department of Justice made the criminal allegations public, claiming that it was a “logical moment” to do so.

This is Mr. Trump’s second criminal prosecution; he will stand trial in New York in a state case involving a hush-money payment to a porn star next year.