A 49-page indictment unsealed Friday by federal prosecutors in Miami paints a damning portrait of how former President Donald Trump allegedly retained batches of classified documents and enlisted a key aide, Walt Nauta, to move them around.
The indictment alleges Mr. Trump retained nuclear secrets and papers on foreign weapons systems at his Mar-a-Lago estate and waved around military plans to persons without proper clearance in 2021.
The document also alleges Mr. Trump conspired with Mr. Nauta to move boxes with sensitive documents around the estate — part of which operates as a social club for outside guests — and give misleading statements to investigators about whether they turned over requested papers to the FBI and grand jury.
“Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” Mr. Trump said, as recounted by an attorney, after a May 2022 subpoena for documents, according to the indictment.
It says Mr. Trump stored letters, news clippings and other mementos from his presidency in boxes but mixed in classified documents on weapons capabilities of the U.S. and other countries, information about U.S. nuclear weapons systems and plans for retaliation in case of a military attack.
The indictment includes 31 counts of willful retention of documents and charges Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta of conspiracy to obstruct justice from May 2022 to August 2022.
DOCUMENT: United States v. Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta
Prosecutors accused Mr. Trump of transferring the documents to his Florida residence despite no longer being entitled to them since he was no longer president.
“Trump was personally involved in this process,” the indictment says. “Trump caused his boxes, containing hundreds of classified documents, to be transported from the White House to The Mar-a-Lago Club.”
The documents were stored for a time at the edge of a ballroom where public events took place, the indictment says. They were then moved to various locations at Mar-a-Lago, including a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom and a storage room. The court papers detail text messages about the movements and Mr. Trump’s references to “his papers.”
The boxes made their way to a storage room that could be reached from multiple outside doors, including one by the club pool patio. At one point, documents in the boxes spilled onto the storage room floor and revealed information available only to the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.
The indictment says that some documents were transferred to Mr. Trump’s Bedminster golf club in New Jersey.
In two key episodes, Mr. Trump allegedly showed off sensitive documents to persons who weren’t authorized to see them at Bedminster in 2021.
According to the indictment:
- The first incident in July 2021 included a “plan of attack” that Mr. Trump described and showed a “highly secret” military document and something he could have declassified as president but did not. There is an audio recording of the meeting with a publisher and two members of his staff — none of whom had a security clearance.
- Later in 2021, Mr. Trump showed a classified map of a military operation to a representative of his political action committee.
- Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta conspired by trying to get a Trump attorney to falsely tell the FBI he did not have documents in a May 11 subpoena; moved boxes around to conceal them from the FBI and grand jury; suggested they hide or destroy documents; asserting all of the documents in a May 2022 subpoena were turned over when they weren’t; and making false statements to the FBI.
Mr. Trump is expected to answer the charges at a hearing in a Miami courthouse on Tuesday.
The former president says he is innocent of criminal charges and being subjected to a witch hunt to stymie his 2024 presidential campaign. He also says Mr. Nauta is being unfairly targeted.
Many Republicans rallied to his defense late Thursday before seeing details of the indictment, saying they were concerned the Biden administration weaponized the Justice Department to take out a political opponent.
Mr. Biden refused to comment on the case Friday.
The indictment includes a tick-tock of efforts to retrieve the documents after the FBI opened an investigation into the retention of documents at Mar-a-Lago.
After months of demands from the National Archives, Mr. Trump provided 15 boxes containing 197 documents with classification markings.
In June, after a subpoena, Mr. Trump handed over 38 more documents. An August raid on the estate produced 102 more documents.
The indictment underscores the public nature of the Mar-a-Lago property, saying it hosted 150 social events between January 2021 and August 2022, including weddings and fundraisers. And while the Secret Service protected Mr. Trump and his family, it was not responsible for boxes of documents and was not informed of their presence, the indictment says.
The documents were originated by or referred to “equities” or members of multiple agencies, including the CIA and other intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy.
“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 resources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods,” the indictment says.
The indictment also recounts Mr. Trump’s insistence throughout his presidency that he would enforce laws around classified documents.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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