WASHINGTON (AP) – The US Justice Department detailed shocking allegations in a criminal indictment opened Friday against former President Donald Trump, including allegations that he stored classified documents in a bathroom and shower at his Florida club,… Displayed documents to the public without security clearance and at times tried to hide material from his lawyers and investigators.
In the indictment, prosecutors described the types of classified materials the Republican presidential candidate is alleged to have kept at his Florida beach club after leaving office in 2021, as well as where he kept them And what did he do with them.
Here’s a look at the key moments mentioned in the indictment:
boasting document
At Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf course in July 2021, the former president showed a writer, a publisher and two of his staff members—neither of whom had security clearances—a “plan of attack” that was revealed by the defense. Was prepared department and a senior military officer. In the meeting, which prosecutors said was recorded on audio, Trump told them the plan was “highly confidential”. “As president, I could have declassified it,” he said. “Now I can’t know, you know, but it’s still a mystery.”
In August or September 2021, more than six months after he was no longer president, Trump showed a classified map of a military operation in a foreign country to someone working for his political action committee who didn’t even have a security clearance . Trump acknowledged that he should not have shown the map to staffers and warned staffers not to get too close.
Special Counsel Jack Smith speaks to reporters Friday, June 9, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Documents stored in bathroom and shower
According to the indictment, Trump, who is known to keep mementos, kept hundreds of classified documents along with newspapers, press clippings, notes and cards in cardboard boxes at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Although “thousands of members and guests” visited the club between the time Trump left office and federal agents retrieved the documents in August 2022, Trump had the documents stored in various locations around the resort, including a ballroom, A bathroom and shower was included. , an office space, his bedroom and a storage room.
The documents discussed “the defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries, United States nuclear programs, the United States’ potential vulnerabilities to military attack, and possible retaliation plans in response to a foreign attack”. information was included. the indictment said.
‘I don’t want anyone searching my boxes’
When a grand jury issued a subpoena for classified records at Mar-a-Lago in May 2022, Trump told his lawyers, “I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes,” according to one lawyer’s notes, Detailed in the indictment seeking to disobey the order. The former president asked his lawyers if it would be better “if we just told them we don’t have anything here,” according to the lawyer’s recollection.
US President Donald Trump sits at his desk after meeting with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, left, and members of his staff in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, February 8, 2017, with a lockbag visible on the desk, The key is still inside on the left. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivas, File)
Instructing a lawyer to ‘get it out’
In June 2022 one of Trump’s lawyers identified 38 documents with “classified” markings and put them in a folder, which he sealed with duct tape. He then went to see Trump, who asked the lawyer: “Did you find anything? Is it bad? … good?”
The attorney told federal investigators that he discussed the folder with Trump and the former president indicated he wanted the attorney to find “anything really bad” and “you know, get it out.” The attorney clarified that Trump did not explain such instructions beyond the “plucking motion”. The attorney said he did not “pluck” anything from the folder, but instead immediately contacted the FBI and another Trump attorney.
keeping documents with your lawyers
According to the indictment, Trump asked the FBI, the grand jury and one of his own attorneys to “move boxes of documents to conceal them.”
The former president agreed in a meeting with his lawyers on May 23, 2022, that one of them would return at a later date to look at storage boxes at Mar-a-Lago for classified documents. Before the lawyer returned, prosecutors said, Trump instructed Nauta to remove 64 boxes from the storage room and bring them to his residence. The indictment states that he returned 30 boxes to Nauta just before the attorney arrived to search for the documents.
Trump’s lawyers handed over some records to the authorities on June 3, 2022. Trump told his lawyers that he was “an open book”, although earlier in the day, Nauta had “loaded several boxes of Trump … onto the plane that took Trump and his family north for the summer,” the indictment said. he said.
