Read the Unsealed Trump Indictment — Revealing Shocking Allegations and 37 Criminal Counts
(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
The Department of Justice has unsealed the federal indictment against former president Donald Trump. Reuters reported the indictment includes 37 different criminal counts related to the former president’s retention of classified documents after he left office.
“The classified documents TRUMP stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign counties; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to foreign attack,” reads the indictment, adding:
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 sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.
The text of the indictment also relates to bombshell reporting from CNN that Trump was recorded discussing documents still in his possession, that he knew were not declassified:
In July 2021, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey (“The Bedminster Club”), during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance, TRUMP showed and described a “plan of attack” that TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official. TRUMP told the individuals that the plan was “highly confidential” and “secret.” TRUMP also said, “as president I could have declassified it,” and, “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
“In August or September 2021, at The Bedminster Club, TRUMP showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation and told the representative that he should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close,” the indictment reads.
Trump’s legal team, after defending him to the press immediately following the announcement of the indictment, resigned today and were replaced by Todd Blanche. Trump has vowed to plead “not guilty” to the charges, despite the mounting evidence that is now being laid out in the indictment.
The walls have been closing in as speculation about the indictment increased, especially after CNN reported an audio recording of Trump discussing documents he kept after leaving the White House and a suspicious flood in the server room at Mar-a-Lago where possibly sensitive information was being kept. But going back to March, special counsel Jack Smith indicated that there was solid evidence that Trump “knowingly and deliberately ” misled his attorneys about the documents.
Read the full indictment here.
More to come
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