Former President Donald J. Trump and his aide, Walt Nauta, were indicted on Friday, revealing new and significant information about an investigation that had previously been shrouded in secrecy. The 49-page document containing 37 counts and seven separate charges portrays a damning picture of how haphazardly Trump and his team handled sensitive government materials and how they obstructed justice by making false statements to block the FBI’s and grand jury’s investigations.
Here are some of the most significant allegations:
Trump and Nauta are accused of conspiring to obstruct justice.
Prosecutors claim that they have evidence indicating Trump willfully ignored a May 2022 subpoena, which required him to return everything belonging to the National Archives. They also claim Trump took extraordinary measures to obstruct the FBI and grand jury. Before his lawyer visited Mar-a-Lago to retrieve documents from a storage room and comply with the subpoena, Trump directed Nauta, the co-defendant, to move 64 boxes out of the room because he believed they were his property.
“I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t,” Trump told one of his attorneys, according to the indictment.
Boxes of important documents were stored in the shower.
The indictment alleges that in April 2021, Trump’s staffers needed to move dozens of boxes from a ballroom that they were converting to office space. “There is still a little room in the shower where his other stuff is,” one aide texted another. The boxes were then moved to a tiny bathroom adjacent to a Mar-a-Lago banquet room, where they were stacked almost up to the chandelier next to the toilet.
Top Secret documents were stored so poorly that they spilled onto the floor.
One of the most striking images in the indictment shows a box of top secret national security documents that had spilled onto the floor of a Mar-a-Lago storage room accessible to many of the resort’s employees in 2021. The files had the “five eyes” classification markings, which meant that only officials with top security clearances from the United States and its closest allies could view them.
Trump suggested his lawyer take a folder of documents and ‘if there’s anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out.’
One of the most problematic pieces of evidence presented is a folder of 38 documents, which was classified. The indictment recounts how, during a conversation with his lawyer, Trump made a “plucking motion,” suggesting he should “pluck out” any bad documents while he took the remaining documents to his hotel. This could indicate that he knew he was holding on to sensitive documents and authorized people without appropriate security clearances to view them, rather than returning them to the archives, as the government demanded.
Trump shared secrets and audio recordings with visitors to Bedminster.
The document outlines how Trump was recorded boasting about secret U.S. battle plans, describing the material as “highly confidential” and “secret,” while admitting it had not been declassified. “See, as president I could have declassified it,” said Trump. “Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”
A secret map was shared with a political action committee staff member.
Another incident in August or September of 2021 involved Trump showing a top secret military map to a staff member at his political action committee who did not have a security clearance. The indictment explained that at the meeting, the former president suggested that a military operation in an unnamed country was not going well. He showed the map to the political action committee member but cautioned them “not to get too close.”
During these interactions, Trump seemed more interested in the fact that these materials had been “presented to him” like a gift or a keepsake than their content.
“Isn’t it amazing?“ he asked one visitor after showing off a document — adding that he had randomly plucked the papers off “a big pile,” suggesting he had many more.
M. Evan Corcoran, one of Trump’s lawyers, is a key witness.
Mr. Corcoran, who kept meticulous notes (some of them transcribed from iPhone voice memos he made for himself), found himself in the position of pressuring his evasive client into doing both the lawful and self-protective thing by returning the documents to the government.
In one of the more stunning revelations, prosecutors said that Trump and Nauta moved around boxes so Mr. Corcoran, who had requested a full accounting of the material to provide to investigators, could not locate them.
