The federal indictment of former President Donald Trump in the classified documents probe has been unsealed.
The 49-page indictment lays out 37 federal charges against Trump, including obstruction and unlawful retention of defense information for storing dozens of classified documents at his Florida resort and refusing to return them to the FBI and the National Archives.
Also named in the indictment is Walt Nauta, a former presidential aide to Trump who remained in his employ after Trump left office. Nauta faces six charges.
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith defended his team’s work and emphasized the seriousness of the charges.
“Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced,” he said.
Smith also noted that the defendants “must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,” adding that the special counsel’s office will seek “a speedy trial on this matter consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused.”
Here is a summary of the counts, which are listed starting on page 28 of the document embedded above:
- Willful retention of national defense information: This charge, covering counts 1-31, only applies to Trump and is for allegedly storing 31 such documents at Mar-a-Lago.
- Conspiracy to obstruct justice: Trump and Nauta, along with others, are charged with conspiring to keep those documents from the grand jury.
- Withholding a document or a record: Trump and Nauta are accused of misleading one of their attorneys by moving boxes of classified documents so the attorney could not find or introduce them to the grand jury.
- Corruptly concealing a document or record: This pertains to the…
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