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Jack Smith (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, Pool), Donald Trump (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Donald Trump’s federal indictment in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents criminal investigation has been unsealed, revealing that the former president faces decades of prison time if convicted as charged.
The indictment contains dozens of counts of willful retention of national defense information, plus conspiracy to obstruct justice, false statements, corruptly concealing a document, and more.
Special Counsel Jack Smith, expected to speak Friday afternoon, alleges that classified documents were kept at various places at Mar-a-Lago, including a bathroom, a shower, and the former president’s bedroom.
“The classified documents TRUMP stored in his boxes included information regarding 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,” the indictment said. “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 special counsel alleged that there’s proof that Trump showed off the documents in July 2021 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., “during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance.”
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This is the development that CNN reported about earlier Friday, that prosecutors had Trump on a 2021 tape saying that he had “secret” military documents about attacking Iran that he could have declassified, but didn’t.
“TRUMP told the individuals that the plan as ‘highly confidential’ and ‘secret,”” the indictment said. “TRUMP also said, ‘as president I could have declassified it,’ and, ‘Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.’”
Prosecutors said that Trump in August 2021 or September 2021 also showed a “representative of his political action committee who did not a possess a security clearance” a classified map related to a military operation. Trump allegedly admitted to this person that he shouldn’t be showing the map in question.
The indictment also features an alleged co-conspirator, Trump aide Walt Nauta, as reported earlier Friday.
This is a developing story.
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