Former President Trump Charged With 37 Federal Charges for Mishandling Classified Documents

June 11, 2023 at 20:57 PM

Former US President Trump.

[China News Agency]An indictment released by the US Department of Justice on the 9th local time showed that former President Trump of the country was charged with 37 federal charges for improper handling of classified documents.

On the 8th, a federal grand jury in Miami, Florida charged Trump with improper handling of classified documents. On the 9th, the U.S. Department of Justice released a 44-page indictment accusing Trump of 31 counts of knowingly retaining national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding documents or records, corruptly concealing documents or records, Hiding documents, schemes of concealment, false statements, and misrepresentation in federal investigations. The indictment also released numerous details about the case.

The indictment alleges that Mar-a-Lago “was not an authorized location to store, possess, review, display, or discuss classified documents” after Trump stepped down as U.S. president. However, he deposited boxes containing classified documents at various locations at the Mar-a-Lago Club. Some photos disclosed in the indictment show a large number of document boxes stacked in the ballroom, shower room and toilet of Mar-a-Lago, with some documents scattered on the ground. In the more than a year since Trump left the White House, “tens of thousands of members and guests” have visited the Mar-a-Lago club. The indictment alleges that Trump twice in 2021 showed classified documents to some people without security clearance and told them that they were seeing classified documents.

The Justice Department also accused the former president in the indictment of working to obstruct FBI and grand jury investigations and concealing his efforts to keep classified documents. Trump has advised his lawyers to hide, destroy relevant documents, or lie to investigators that they do not have them. Trump also instructed his lawyer to sign an “affidavit” certifying that all classified documents had been turned over to the FBI, but Trump knew at the time that Mar-a-Lago had more classified documents.