Donald Trump was hit with a sweeping 37-count indictment from the special counsel’s office Thursday, alleging that he willfully retained documents containing the nation’s most sensitive secrets, including nuclear programs, after he left office, showed some of them on at least two occasions and then tried to obstruct the investigation into their whereabouts.
Federal prosecutors unsealed the indictment Friday against the former president and his aide Walt Nauta in connection with his handling of government documents.
The court papers allege that the classified documents included “defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.”
Boxes of those documents were allegedly stored in various locations around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, including a ballroom stage and a bathroom, according to federal prosecutors.
Read the full indictment here:
“From January through March 15, 2021, some of TRUMP’s boxes were stored in The Mar-a-Lago Club’s White and Gold Ballroom, in which events and gatherings took place. TRUMP’s boxes were for a time stacked on the ballroom’s stage,” the indictment, said.
The federal government also alleged that Trump directed an obstruction into the investigation, instructing attorneys and aides to move the boxes and block attempts from the federal government from retrieving them.
“I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t.”
According to the indictment, Trump allegedly told his attorneys after he got a subpoena to return the documents, “I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t.”
He also asked, “What happens if we just don’t respond at all?”
“Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here,” the document says he asked.
Then, “Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents?”
Trump is slated to be arraigned on Tuesday in a Florida federal court.
Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and criticized the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney general’s office of conducting a political “witch hunt.”
The 49-page indictment includes several transcripts, surveillance footage, notes from at least one of his lawyers, audio recordings and other evidence that federal prosecutors claim Trump knowingly kept top-secret documents and endangered national security.
