MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump indicted in Mar-a-Lago classified documents case

“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump wrote on Truth

Former US President Donald Trump has been indicted of 37 criminal charges for the classified White House documents seized by the FBI at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida regarding nuclear secrets and information on the military defense capabilities of foreign countries for “withholding national security information” and “obstruction of justice,” it was reported in Washington DC.

Trump kept these files unsecured where he regularly hosted large social events with tens of thousands of guests, according to the indictment filed in federal court in that state. On at least two occasions, he showed classified documents on US military operations and plans to people who were not authorized to see them at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. 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 UK, and the US.

Hence, Trump now faces 31 counts of willful withholding of national defense information; one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice; one count of possession of records; one count of concealing the documents; as well as three more counts of concealing a document during a federal investigation, scheming and false statements.

The 49-page federal indictment includes the same charges for former presidential aide Walt Nauta, for participating in the concealment.

The documents Trump took “included information about the defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and other countries, US 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 claims.

“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.”

Trump is expected to appear in federal court in Miami on Tuesday, albeit with a new legal team besides him after the lawyers who had been representing him in the case resigned Friday. Trump posted Friday on Truth Social that he would be represented by attorney Todd Blanche and “a firm to be named later.”

“I want to thank Jim Trusty and John Rowley for their work, but they were up against a very dishonest, corrupt, evil and 'sick' group of people, the likes of which has not been seen before,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social account.

“We will be announcing additional lawyers in the coming days. When will Joe Biden be Indicted for his many crimes against our Nation? MAGA!,” he added

“This morning we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation,” Trusty and Rowley wrote.

“Now that the case has been filed in Miami, this is a logical moment for us to step aside and let others carry the cases through to completion. We have no plans to hold media appearances that address our withdrawals or any other confidential communications we've had with the president or his legal team.”

The charging document said that on at least two occasions Trump showed classified documents about US military operations to people who did not have a security clearance. One of those documents was a “plan of attack” against another country that a military official had drawn up, according to the indictment.

“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everybody,” US special counsel and leading prosecutor Jack Smith told reporters Friday. “Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced. Violations of those laws put our country at risk,” he added. Smith insisted Trump must be presumed innocent until proven guilty and that his office would seek a speedy trial before a jury of Florida residents. After a federal grand jury in Florida indicted him, Trump became the first former president in history to face a federal indictment.

“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump wrote. “I’m an innocent man, I’m an innocent person,” Trump said. “We can't let this continue to go on because it's ripping our country to shreds.”

The indictment is the latest legal trouble for Trump as he hopes to return to office after losing a reelection bid to Biden in 2020. In April, a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on state charges of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to an adult film star during his 2016 run for president. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.