Justice Department sues Trump in document case

The Justice Department took the legally and politically momentous step on Thursday to file federal criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump, accusing him of mishandling classified documents he kept upon leaving office and subsequently attempting to of the government to recover them.

Mr Trump confirmed on his social media platform that he had been charged. Charges against him include willful withholding of national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice, two people familiar with the case said.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the indictment on Thursday and did not immediately make the document public.

The indictment, filed by a grand jury in Miami’s Federal District Court, marks the first time a former president has faced federal charges. It puts the nation in an extraordinary position given Mr. Trump’s stature, not only as a former commander in chief, but also as the current front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination against President Biden, whose administration will now seek to defeat his potential multi-man rival. crimes.

Mr. Trump is expected to surrender to authorities on Tuesday, according to a person close to him and his own post on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“The corrupt Biden administration has informed my lawyers that I have been charged,” Trump wrote in one of several messages around 7 p.m. after being made aware of the allegations.

The former president added that he would be arraigned in federal court in Miami at 3 p.m. Tuesday. In a video he later released on Truth Social, Mr. Trump stated, “I am an innocent man. I am an innocent person.”

An attorney for Mr. Trump, Jim Trusty, told CNN Thursday night that the former president’s legal team had not seen the indictment itself, but that the subpoena contained some details about the allegations. He cited alleged violations of the Espionage Act, allegations of false statements and “various obstruction-based” charges, including offenses under Section 1512, which criminalize witness tampering or other means of obstructing an official effort.

Mr. Trusty said he believed there was also a conspiracy. But he added: “This is not biblically correct, because I am not looking at a loading document. I’m looking at an overview sheet.’ He also said Trump’s legal team had not been notified of anyone else being charged.

The indictment, filed by the office of special counsel Jack Smith, came about two months after local New York prosecutors filed more than 30 felony charges against Mr Trump in a case related to a hush money payment to a porn actress in anticipation of the 2016 elections.

Mr. Trump continues to be investigated by Mr. Smith’s office for his wide-ranging efforts to retain power following his 2020 election loss, and how those efforts led to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump leader. crowd . He is also under investigation for possible election interference by the Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney’s office.

A senior Biden administration official said the White House learned of the indictment from news reports.

Public filings in the documents case have painted a picture of Mr. Trump consistently thwarting efforts by both the National Archives and Records Administration and the Justice Department for more than a year to recover the trove of hundreds of sensitive government documents he took with him. of the White House and mostly kept at Mar-a-Lago, his private Florida club and residence.

While the nature of some of the documents found in Mr Trump’s possession is known – for example, he had kept letters from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un – it remains unclear what other classified materials were found in Mar-a – Lago and, moreover, what damage, if any, to national security his possession has caused.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly characterized the investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt, and in recent weeks his lawyers have attempted to raise what he says are issues of prosecutorial misconduct. As early as Thursday morning, Mr. Trump tried to discredit the investigation by complaining about improprieties by a member of Mr. Smith’s team in a post on Truth Social.

The story of Mr Trump’s mishandling of government documents dates back to 2021, when the National Archives found that he failed to return certain documents after he left office. Mr Trump was initially reluctant to return any material, despite persistent warnings from some of his lawyers that he could face dire consequences if he ignored the archives’ requests.

After much negotiation, Mr. Trump sent the Archives 15 boxes of materials in January last year. When officials at the records office examined the records, they found classified materials circulated between them and alerted the Justice Department.

Thus began an extensive investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling and retention of the secret documents.

In May 2022, prosecutors issued a subpoena for the return of all classified documents in possession of his presidential office. When Mr. Trump received the subpoena, he asked the lawyer hired to help him comply, M. Evan Corcoran, whether he had to obey the demands, according to a description of Mr. Corcoran’s notes of the conversation.

Finally, Mr. Corcoran conducted a search of Mar-a-Lago for anything that might fall under the terms of the subpoena and prepared an affidavit that everything had been found. In early June 2022, Washington prosecutors visited Mr. Corcoran at the Florida compound to enforce the subpoena and retrieve a folder he had prepared for them containing approximately 30 classified documents discovered during his search.

However, within a few weeks, prosecutors developed evidence that the search warrant Mr. Corcoran was incomplete and that more classified material was likely left in Mar-a-Lago. They convinced a Florida federal magistrate to issue a search warrant, and in August FBI agents descended on the property and took away about 100 additional classified documents.

Even after the extraordinary search, prosecutors were not convinced they had recovered all of the classified material in Mr Trump’s possession. They persuaded a Washington federal judge, Beryl A. Howell, to force new searches by Mr. Trump’s legal team, not only of Mar-a-Lago, but of other properties owned by Mr. Trump, including the Trump Tower in New York. ; Mr. Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, NJ; and a storage facility in West Palm Beach, Fla.

While searching the bin, Mr. Trump’s lawyers found at least two more classified documents.

As the investigation progressed, prosecutors scored a handful of breakthroughs.

In March, they convinced Judge Howell that Mr Trump had likely used Mr Corcoran’s legal advice to further a crime – a finding that allowed the government to circumvent the usual protections of the attorney-client privilege and access Mr. Corcoran’s extensive audio. notes of his dealings with the former president.

Around the same time, investigators discovered a recording of Mr Trump meeting with his aides in July 2021, in which he openly discussed a classified document in possession regarding military options to confront Iran. In the recording, according to several people familiar with it, Mr. Trump expressed regret for not releasing the document while in office and acknowledged that he could no longer do so.

That admission seemed to run counter to one of the main defenses he had repeatedly advanced during the investigation: that he had released all the material he had taken from the White House.

Charlie Savage reporting contributed.