That’s important because the Justice Department historically looks for willfulness in deciding whether to bring criminal charges.Ī special counsel was appointed earlier this year to probe how classified materials ended up at Biden’s Delaware home and former office. There is no indication either was aware of the existence of the records before they were found, and no evidence has so far emerged that Biden or Pence sought to conceal the discoveries. In all, roughly 300 documents with classification markings - including some at the top secret level - have been recovered from Trump since he left office in January 2021. With a search warrant, federal officials returned to Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and seized more than 33 boxes and containers totaling 11,000 documents from a storage room and an office, including 100 classified documents. Investigators who went to visit the property weeks later to collect the records were given roughly three dozen documents and a sworn statement from Trump’s lawyers attesting that the requested information had been returned.īut that assertion turned out to be false. That May, the FBI and Justice Department issued a subpoena for remaining classified documents in Trump’s possession. In January 2022, the National Archives retrieved 15 boxes of documents from Trump’s Florida home, later telling Justice Department officials that they contained “a lot” of classified material.
The top charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.Ī Trump representative told the National Archives in December 2021 that presidential records had been found at Mar-a-Lago. Prosecutors alleged Trump showed off the documents to people who did not have security clearances to review them and later tried to conceal documents from his own lawyers as they sought to comply with federal demands to find and return documents. and other countries, according to the indictment. Trump is accused of keeping documents related to “nuclear weaponry in the United States” and the “nuclear capabilities of a foreign country,” along with documents from White House intelligence briefings, including some that detail the military capabilities of the U.S. The charges include counts of retaining classified information, obstructing justice and making false statements, among other crimes. Trump faces 37 counts related to the mishandling of classified documents, according to the indictment unsealed Friday. Here’s a look at the charges, the special counsel’s investigation and how Trump’s case differs from those of other politicians known to be in possession of classified documents: Donald Trump’s indictment on 37 counts of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate represents the most serious legal jeopardy so far for Trump, coming less than three months after he was charged in New York with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
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