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It was anticipated that a federal investigation into Donald Trump’s retention of top-secret documents months after he left the White House would result in charges in Washington DC. But the damning 37-count indictment, with more than two dozen counts of illegally withholding classified documents under the Espionage Act, was filed on 8 June in US District Court in Florida, his primary residence and the location of his notorious Mar-a-Lago resort property, where mounds of boxes with sensitive government documents were discovered by federal law enforcement. Photographs in an unsealed indictment released on 9 June showed stacks of them on a ballroom stage and gilded bathroom with a chandelier. Interviews with witnesses and transcripts of conversations in the sweeping indictment appear to show a depth of coordination among Mr Trump, his aides and attorneys to bring them to the property and, later, conceal them from law enforcement. So it makes sense that prosecutors would charge him and his associate Walt Nauta in Florida. But determining the venue for a case against the former president, or any defendant, isn’t necessarily a straightforward one. “It really could make a huge difference. The jury pool is different. The judges are different,” according to former assistant US Attorney Andrew Weissmann, speaking to MSNBC. “Also, DC is a location where the court is very used to dealing with classified information. There’s an expertise there. So in terms of speed, getting this case to trial, the venue matters,” he added. The Republican former president also has repeatedly rejected charges and investigations against him in several jurisdiction as political “witch hunts,” pointing to the Democratic majorities in New York City – where was found liable for sexual abuse, hit with a $250m lawsuit from the state attorney general, and criminally charged with more than 30 counts of falsifying business records – and Atlanta, where his efforts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election are expected to result in charges this summer. Mr Trump won the state of Florida in 2016 and 2020, though he lost the county of Miami-Dade, where he is facing a federal indictment. A form attached to the indictment also noted that the case was filed in the West Palm Beach court division, suggesting that a prospective jury pool may be drawn from there. Voters in Palm Beach County have reliably voted for Democratic presidential candidates, but Republican Governor Ron DeSantis won 51 per cent of the county vote last year. Mr DeSantis – Mr Trump’s rival for the 2024 Republican nomination for president – said in a statement after news of the indictment that he “will bring accountability to the [US Department of Justice], excise political bias and end weaponization once and for all” but stopped short of saying he would do anything to intervene. “The fact that this is being charged in Florida is enormously significant,” according to CNN legal analyst Elie Honig. “Legally, I think it’s the right move by [the Justice Department], because they’re going to avoid a messy question about venue.” Subpoenas may have been issued from Washington DC, but courts have upheld that the venue must be tied to where the unlawful conduct was committed. Florida may ultimately be “less advantageous” for federal prosecutors and the Justice Department in a case dealing with classified documents and the aftermath of a presidential administration, typically the purview of Washington courts, but the state is a “legally a less risky venue at this juncture,” according to Mr Weissmann and Ryan Goodman. “Whatever legal and factual arguments might support venue in Washington DC, the consequences of getting that calculus wrong, is an unknown variable that will counsel in favor of caution on the part of the [Justice Department],” they wrote. Prosecutors also likely do not want to “risk spending the first year fighting over venue,” former federal prosecutor Randall D Eliason told The Washington Post. For now, Mr Trump’s case will be handled by a federal judge he appointed to the bench in 2020 – and who already has delivered controversial rulings in the investigation that were rejected by an appeals court. US District Judge Aileen Cannon is scheduled to preside over his federal court case in Miami. Last year, Judge Cannon appointed a “special master” to review materials seized by federal law enforcement and restricted the FBI from using those documents as part of the investigation until she completed a review, effectively freezing the Justice Department probe. That order was ultimately thrown out entirely by a three-judge panel at a federal appeals court, which sharply criticised the judge’s actions and stressed that a court cannot simply “write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant” or “write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.” If she does not recuse herself from the case and she remains a trial judge, she could play a potentially critical role in the case’s development, including whether to set a trial before or after presidential primary elections and the general election in 2024, as Mr Trump seeks the Republican nomination for president. He already is scheduled to return to Manhattan Criminal Court on 25 March – days after voting begins in primary states. A trial in a fraud lawsuit targeting Mr Trump, his adult children and his business entities is slated to begin in October. Read More Trump indictment — latest: Trump ‘plotted to hide documents from FBI after showing military docs to visitors’ Read Donald Trump’s 37-count federal indictment in full Conspiracy, false statements and retaining national defence documents: The federal charges against Donald Trump Hiding documents from the FBI and foreign nuclear plans: Key allegations in Trump’s unsealed indictment Jack Smith defends Trump indictment: ‘We have one set of laws and they apply to everyone’

Kevin McCarthy launched an aggressive defence of Donald Trump after his indictment on 37 counts of mishandling top secret documents. “This is going to disrupt this nation because it goes to the core of equal justice for all which is not being seen today,” the Republican House Speaker told Fox News on Friday. “And we're not going to stand for it.” Mr McCarthy’s comments came after the Department of Justice unsealed a 49-page indictment which laid out in extraordinary detail Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 15-month investigation into Mr Trump’s “willful defiance” of efforts to retrieve the materials. The indictment painted a damning picture of Mr Trump’s reckless storage of top secret material he took to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House, and his efforts to obstruct investigators. The classified material included nuclear secrets, war plans, and vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies. Mr Trump told lawyers tasked with complying with a DOJ subpoena that he didn’t want “anyone going through my boxes”, according to the indictment. Mr McCarthy, who is struggling to hold on to the House leadership, called the indictment a “dark day for America”. “You've got a sitting president right now in the exact same situation. You have a former first lady, senator, secretary of state, that had the same situation that nothing was done to,” he told Fox News. Republicans also rushed to defend Mr Trump despite the seemingly overwhelming evidence presented in the 49-page indictment. “We have now reached a war phase. Eye for an eye,” Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs wrote on Twitter. Elise Stefanik, the number three House Republican, tweeted that she was committed to “holding government officials accountable for their endless illegal witch hunt against President Trump”. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley wrote: “If the people in power can jail their political opponents at will, we don’t have a republic.” And Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, said: “There is no limit to what these people will do to protect their power & destroy those who threaten it, even if it means ripping our country apart & shredding public faith in the institutions that hold our republic together.” However, the indictment comes not from political rivals or even from prosecutors but from a grand jury. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was investigated by the FBI in 2016 for her handling of classified material, who opted not to charge her after saying she had been “extremely careless”. President Joe Biden and Trump’s vice president Mike Pence were found to have retained classified materials, but complied with efforts by the National Archive to return them. Read More Trump news — latest: Trump ‘plotted to hide documents from FBI after showing military docs to visitors’ Jonathan Turley tells Fox News the Trump indictment is ‘extremely damning’ and a ‘hit below the waterline’ Trump praised attorney for deleting Hillary Clinton’s 30,000 emails, indictment shows Trump described Pentagon ‘plan of attack’ and shared classified military map with PAC member, indictment shows Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

A female member of Donald Trump's family was involved in decisions over how to handle classified US government documents that he took from the White House, prosecutors have said. In a historic indictment unsealed on Friday, authorities alleged that an unnamed family member gave instructions to Mr Trump's aide Walt Nauta as he was preparing to squirrel away documents that the former president did not wish to give back. The accusation widens the circle of people who may have had unauthorised influence over sensitive information about US nuclear weapons, military plans, foreign relations, and more. Yet the identity of the family member remains a mystery, with the only clue being that Mr Nauta allegedly addressed her as "ma'am". ABC News reported that the woman was likely to be Mr Trump's wife Melania, citing inside sources. Melania Trump's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr Trump is facing 37 criminal charges including willfully retaining national defence information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing a document in a federal investigation, and false statements and representations. Prosecutors claim that Mr Trump schemed to keep hold of some documents in defiance of a legal order to give them back, while storing them insecurely at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida while tens of thousands of guests came and went. Mr Trump contends that he is "an innocent man" and that the charges are "a hoax" contrived by his political enemies. According to the indictment, Mr Trump's family member became involved on 30 May 2022, just day before a lawyer was due to search his storage room for classified documents demanded by the government. Before that happened, Mr Trump allegedly asked Mr Nauta to remove 64 boxes from their storage room and bring them to his private residence, meaning they would not be present for the lawyer to search. That day, the family member allegedly texted Mr Nauta: "Good afternoon, Walt. Happy Memorial Day! I saw you put boxes to POTUS' room. "Just FYI, and I will tell him as well: not sure how many he wants to take on Friday on the plane. We will NOT have room for them. Plane will be full with luggage. Thank you!" Mr Nauta replied with a smiley face emoji, saying: "Good afternoon ma'am. Thank you so much. I think he wanted to pick from them. I don't imagine him wanting to take the boxes. "He told me to put them in the room and that he was going to talk to you about them." The indictment says nothing more about who this family member might have been, how much she knew about the documents, and what her intentions were in texting Mr Nauta. The most prominent women in Mr Trump's immediate family are his wife Melania, his daughter from his first marriage Ivanka, 41, and his daughter from his second marriage Tiffany, 29. The indictment does not suggest that any of them had knowledge of any illegal behaviour. Read More Trump bragged a ‘secret’ document ‘totally wins my case’. A tape of his remarks could land him in prison Trump news — latest: Trump ‘plotted to hide documents from FBI after showing military docs to visitors’ Hiding documents from the FBI and foreign nuclear plans: Key allegations in Trump’s unsealed indictment

The federal indictment against former president Donald Trump has now been unsealed - revealing a stunning laundry list of 37 counts. The 49-page, 37-count indictment was unsealed on Friday after Mr Trump released a series of social media posts revealing that he has been indicted by a grand jury under the supervision of Special Counsel Jack Smith. The indictment details the charges against Mr Trump and Walt Nauta, a former US Navy noncommissioned officer who left government service to work for Mr Trump after his term ended in January 2021. Those charges include willful retention of national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing documents, conealing documents in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and making false statements. Mr Trump will surrender, face arrest, and be formally charged at an arraignment in US District Court in Miami next week. A potential sentence, if convicted, could include decades in prison. Read the indictment in full: Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Former president Donald Trump showed highly-classified information to unauthorised persons on two separate occasions, according to a copy of the indictment against him that has been obtained by The Independent. The 49-page, 37-count indictment was unsealed on Friday after Mr Trump released a series of social media posts revealing that he has been indicted by a grand jury under supervision of Special Counsel Jack Smith. The indictment details the charges against Mr Trump and Walt Nauta, a former US Navy noncommissioned officer who left government service to work for Mr Trump after his term ended in January 2021. According to the indictment, the 37 charges against Mr Trump and Mr Nauta include willful retention of national defence information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations. The first 31 counts of the indictment concern Mr Trump’s willful retention of national defence information at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida home. Read More What is an indictment? Here’s what Donald Trump is facing Trump indicted in classified documents case in a historic first for a former president Conspiracy, false statements and retaining national defence documents: The federal charges against Donald Trump Trump has been caught on tape. Congratulations, Donald – you played yourself

The federal indictment against Donald Trump outlines 37 counts related to retaining classified information, willfully retaining national defence information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and more. The indictment was unsealed on Friday (9 June) afternoon, revealing the Department of Justice’s findings after a nearly year-long investigation into Mr Trump retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Last August, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized boxes of documents from Mr Trump’s home, some of which included top-secret records detailing a foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities. Here are key points from the indictment: Trump kept classified documents in his bathroom, bedroom and more Photos included in the indictment show several rooms in Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home where he allegedly kept boxes containing classified documents. This includes the bathroom and shower at the Mar-a-Lago Club’s Lake Room, the White and Gold Ballroom, the business center at Mar-a-Lago and more. Trump described a Pentagon’s classified ‘plan of attack’ to a book writer and staff More follows Read More Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Donald Trump has lashed out at special counsel Jack Smith, branding the federal prosecutor who has indicted him over mishandling of secret national security papers a “deranged lunatic” and “psycho” on social media. The former president attacked Mr Smith on his Truth Social platform after the Department of Justice’s 49-page 37-count indictment against him was made public on Friday. “This is the man who caused the Lois Lerner catastrophe with the IRS. He went after Evangelicals and Great Americans of Faith. The United States had to apologize, and pay major damages for what this deranged lunatic did,” stated twice-impeached Mr Trump. “He had a unanimous loss in the Supreme Court. His wife is a Trump Hater, just as he is a Trump Hater—a deranged “psycho” that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with “Justice,” other than to look at Biden as a criminal, which he is!” The indictment details the charges against Mr Trump and Walt Nauta, a former US Navy noncommissioned officer who left government service to work for Mr Trump after his term ended in January 2021. According to the indictment, the 37 charges against Mr Trump and Mr Nauta include willful retention of national defence information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations. The first 31 counts of the indictment concern Mr Trump’s willful retention of national defence information at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida home. Read More Trump indictment unsealed — live: Trump ‘plotted to hide papers from FBI after showing military docs to visitors’ How Trump’s second indictment unfolded: A timeline of the investigation into Mar-a-Lago documents Trump described Pentagon ‘plan of attack’ and shared classified military map with PAC member, indictment shows Trump praised attorney for deleting Hillary Clinton’s 30,000 emails, indictment shows Is Donald Trump going to prison?

Former president Donald Trump has repeatedly asserted a legally dubious claim that he declassified sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago property before he left the White House after losing the 2020 presidential election. But he admitted, on a tape, six months after leaving office, that a document in his possession was “classified”, “highly confidential” and “secret information”. He admitted, on tape, that he could declassify such documents as president, but now that he is out of office, “I can’t.” The recording from July 2021 was in possession of federal prosecutors investigating the former president’s alleged mishandling of hundreds of documents bearing classification markings found in boxes at his Florida home, and whether he lied to authorities and his attorneys about the records he was keeping. A transcript of the recording published by CNN is expected to be a central piece of evidence in a federal case against the former president, who faces 37 counts in a federal indictment unsealed on 9 June. The recording also appears to contradict his ongoing, bogus claims about documents in his possession, as he rails against the federal “witch hunt” against him, among a long list of criminal charges, lawsuits and other legal actions he faces in courtrooms across the country. Last year, he told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he could declassify sensitive material by thinking about it. “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified – even by thinking about it,” he said. “Because you’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago or wherever you’re sending it. There doesn’t have to be a process. There can be a process, but there doesn’t have to be.” In an appearance on Fox News with Hannity last week, the former president dismissed reports of the tape. “All I know is this: everything I did was right,” he said. By July 2021, officials at the National Archives and Records Administration had already spent several weeks urging Mr Trump to return documents they believed he had in his possession, culminating in a federal law enforcement search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022. The recording appears to have taken place at Mr Trump’s resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, alongside two people working with his former chief of staff Mark Meadows on his memoir from his time in the administration. Aides for Mr Trump, including communications specialist Margo Martin, also were reportedly present. Ms Martin was reportedly asked about the recording during a grand jury appearance in the case. A transcript of the recording suggests that the former president was showing the document to people in the room. The file allegedly involves a US Department of Defense report involving an attack on Iran. “Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” he said at one point, according to the transcript. “This was done by the military and given to me.” The meeting followed The New Yorker’s publication of a story from Susan Glasser detailing how, in the final days of Mr Trump’s presidency, his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley had instructed his team to prevent Mr Trump from launching a strike that could trigger a war. Mr Trump reportedly sought to use the document to discredit Mr Milley’s warnings and undermine reports that Mr Milley pushed back against an increasingly erratic president in the finals days of the administration, but the document reportedly was drafted much earlier in Mr Trump’s administration under then-Joint Chiefs chairman Joseph Dunford. “Well, with Milley – uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t that amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him,” Mr Trump said, according to the transcript. “They presented me this – this is off the record, but – they presented me this,” he added. “This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him.” Later, he said there was “all sorts of stuff – pages long.” “Wait a minute, let’s see here,” he continued. “I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this.” “Secret” and “confidential” are among classification markings for sensitive government documents. Mr Trump is charged with 31 of 37 counts under a section of the Espionage Act that prohibits “gathering, transmitting or losing” any “information respecting the national defence”. The use of Section 793, which does not make reference to classified information, is likely intended to undercut Mr Trump’s attempts to claim that he declassified such documents before moving them to his Florida home. That statute is written in a way that could encompass Mr Trump’s conduct even if he was authorised to possess the information as president. It states that anyone who “lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document … relating to the national defence” and “willfully” transmits such information in any way can face a prison sentence of up to 10 years. For an additional conviction on a charge of obstruction, prosecutors must prove whether he knowingly kept documents from authorities and willfully defied the Justice Department’s subpoena for documents in his possession. A conviction includes a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. The investigation is one of two helmed by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland to lead a probe into the documents and Mr Trump’s role in the January 6 attempt to subvert the 2020 presidential election. Read More Trump indictment - live: Trump says he’s ‘an innocent man’ as he faces seven charges in documents case Obstruction, witness tampering, conspiracy: The federal charges against Donald Trump How Trump’s second indictment unfolded: A timeline of the investigation into Mar-a-Lago documents

Donald Trump praised an attorney who deleted 30,000 Hillary Clinton emails, according to a newly unsealed indictment from special counsel Jack Smith. As a candidate and president, Mr Trump repeatedly called for his 2016 opponent to be locked up after she was found to have used a private server to for official communications as secretary of state. But privately, he joked about how her lawyers had “done a great job” deleting the emails. The unsealed indictment details a conversation Mr Trump held with two lawyers, listed as Trump Attorney 1 and Trump Attorney 2 on 23 May 2022. The lawyers informed Mr Trump he would have to comply with a Department of Justice subpoena to turn over any classified materials to the National Archive. According to the indictment, Mr Trump asked them: “Well what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?” In a subsequent conversation, “memorialised” by Attorney 1, Mr Trump allegedly said: “(Attorney), he was great, he did a great job. You know what? He said, he said that it... was him. That he was the one who deleted all of her emails, the 30,000 emails, because they basically dealt with her scheduling and her going to the gym and her having beauty appointments. “And he was great. And he, so she didn’t get in any trouble because he said that he was the one who deleted him.” The identity of the attorney who supposedly deleted Ms Clinton’s emails was redacted. Trump Attorney 1, who was apparently recording the conversation, was said to be Evan Corcoran, according to CNN. The indictment, released a day after Mr Trump was indicted, revealed that he has been charged with 37 counts including conspiracy to obstruct justice and scheme to conceal that laid bare for the first time the vast scope of the classified document investigation. According to the indictment, FBI agents collected a total of 102 classified documents during a search of Mar-a-Lago last August. Read More Trump indictment — live: Justice Department unseals classified papers indictment as aide also faces charges Trump described Pentagon ‘plan of attack’ and shared classified military map with PAC member, indictment shows Conspiracy, false statements and retaining national defense documents: The federal charges against Donald Trump Trump indictment unsealed: Ex-president showed classified documents to unauthorised persons Ivanka and Jared split over attending Trump 2024 launch – follow live Why was Donald Trump impeached twice during his first term? Four big lies Trump told during his 2024 presidential announcement

Former president Donald Trump showed highly-classified information to unauthorised persons on two separate occasions, according to a copy of the indictment against him that has been obtained by The Independent. The 49-page, 37-count indictment was unsealed on Friday after Mr Trump released a series of social media posts revealing that he has been indicted by a grand jury under supervision of Special Counsel Jack Smith. The indictment details the charges against Mr Trump and Walter Nauta, a former US Navy noncommissioned officer who left government service to work for Mr Trump after his term ended in January 2021. It also lays out the two instances on which Mr Trump showed classified documents to unauthorised persons at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. The first, in July 2021, was during an interview with a writer and a publisher who were working on a book by his ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows. According to the indictment, Mr Trump showed the writer, the book publisher, and two staff members who lacked security clearances a “plan of attack” put together by General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had recently been reported as criticising Mr Trump by the New Yorker. The second instance involved a classified map of an unnamed country, and staff working for Mr Trump’s political action committee. The indictment states that Mr Trump acknowledged that he lacked the authorization to show the documents at issue to the people who were present for both incidents. According to the indictment, the 37 charges against Mr Trump and Mr Nauta include willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and false statements and representations. More follows... Read More Rep. Santos says he's protecting family members by seeking to keep bond cosigners secret DoJ unseals Trump classified papers indictment as aide also faces charges - live Trump ‘body man’ Walt Nauta has been indicted alongside ex-president

Donald Trump described a “plan of attack” devised by the Pentagon and shared a classified military map with a member of his political action committee who didn’t have a security clearance, the 37-count indictment against the former president shows. The indictment was unsealed on Friday afternoon. More follows...

A Donald Trump ‘body man’ has reportedly been indicted in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the former president’s mishandling of classified documents. Walt Nauta, a longtime Trump aide, is the second person to be indicted in the investigation, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Mr Trump immediately confirmed the development in a Truth Social post. “I have just learned that the ‘Thugs from the Department of Injustice will be Indicting a wonderful man, Walt Nauta, a member of the U.S. Navy, who served proudly with me in the White House, retired as Senior Chief, and then transitioned into private life as a personal aide,” he ranted. Mr Trump added that federal investigators were “trying to destroy his life”. “He is strong, brave, and a Great Patriot. The FBI and DOJ are CORRUPT!” Details of the indictment were not immediately known. Mr Nauta, a former White House aide who later joined Mr Trump’s staff at Mar-a-Lago, was reportedly with the former president when news of the indictment broke on Thursday, according to CNN. Mr Trump was indicted on seven separate federal counts understood to include conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements, and unlawful retention of national defence information on Thursday night. Breaking more to come Read More Trump indictment — live: Trump’s brazen classified document admission revealed amid MAGA meltdown over charges Trump-appointed judge will initially preside over ex-president’s federal indictment Trump faces unprecedented legal peril, but will it hurt his standing with Republican voters?