The Trump Classified Documents Indictment, Annotated (2023)

1 Although law enforcement officials conducted most of the investigation using a grand jury in Washington, the special counsel chose to bring the case in Florida. That avoided a potential legal fight over venue, but it carried the risk that the case would be assigned to Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who was appointed by former President Donald J. Trump and who has issued a series of rulings unusually favorable to him. Judge Cannon will indeed take the case, according to people familiar with the matter.

2 The indictment lays out the potential danger of the classified information in the documents Mr. Trump kept at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

3 As has been recently reported, the special counsel, Jack Smith, has apparently obtained an audio recording of Mr. Trump acknowledging that he knew a document in his possession was still classified. That stands at odds with Mr. Trump’s public claims that he had declassified all the materials he took from the Oval Office. (No credible evidence has emerged to support that claim, which his lawyers had declined to repeat in court, where there are professional consequences for lying.)

4 This section of the indictment outlines another incident in which Mr. Trump is accused of having shown a classified document to someone while acknowledging that it was still secret. It does not refer to a recording, raising the possibility that the unidentified representative of his political action committee provided this account to investigators.

5 The indictment lays out five specific actions by Mr. Trump that it says were illegal obstruction.

6 Mr. Trump’s aide Walt Nauta was also indicted and is described in this filing as a co-conspirator in the crimes.

7 The indictment emphasizes how many people were wandering in and out of Mr. Trump’s estate in Florida, implying that improperly storing classified documents there risked their disclosure.

8 The indictment uses Mr. Trump’s words from the 2016 campaign, attacking his rival, Hillary Clinton, over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, to show he understood the importance of protecting classified information.

9 The indictment includes a photograph showing that some of the boxes Mr. Trump had taken from the White House were stored for a time in a ballroom in Mar-a-Lago where guests had access.

10 The indictment includes a photograph by Mr. Nauta that shows boxes spilling classified documents onto the floor of a storage room.

11 The existence of this recording came to public light this month. Mr. Trump claimed the document was written by Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

12 In this recording, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he had a document that was still classified and was showing it to three other people who did not have security clearances and were not authorized to see it.

13 The indictment again uses Mr. Trump’s own words to condemn him.

14 Throughout the investigation, reporting suggested that investigators were examining the movement of boxes in and out of the storage room at Mar-a-Lago after Mr. Trump knew the government wanted the documents back.

15 The indictment accuses Mr. Nauta of lying to the F.B.I. about moving the boxes.

16 The details of this description of Mr. Nauta moving a box from the storage room, after a subpoena in May requested the return of the documents, most likely come from Mar-a-Lago security camera footage. Investigators also subpoenaed that footage.

17 Trump Attorney 1 remains unnamed in the document, but the designation appears to refer to Evan Corcoran, who played a key role in handling Mr. Trump’s responses to the government over its repeated requests for the return of the documents. Mr. Corcoran made a lengthy and detailed voice memo about his conversations with Mr. Trump. Mr. Smith fought a legal battle to obtain that material, and a federal judge ruled that the so-called crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege applied.

19 The special counsel appears to be connecting phone records and surveillance footage to show a link between Mr. Trump’s and Mr. Nauta’s actions.

20 The indictment suggests that Mr. Trump and Mr. Nauta hid boxes of documents from Mr. Corcoran, who would soon tell the Justice Department that there were no other files responsive to the subpoena — which was not true.

21 Here is another instance presented as Mr. Trump asking, without directly asking, for Mr. Corcoran to destroy classified documents rather than turn them over to the government.

22 The lawyer who signed a statement stating that a diligent search had been conducted and that all known classified information had been returned to the government was Christina Bobb, who was serving as the formal custodian of records for Mr. Trump’s office. The indictment makes clear she did not know the statements in the attestation were false.

24 Trump has been charged with violating a provision of the Espionage Act, a 1917 law that makes it a crime to hold onto secret government documents without authorization. This provision was enacted before the advent of the modern classification system, and it does not require prosecutors to prove that the secret documents had been deemed classified. Trump has claimed that he declassified everything that he took from the White House, although no credible evidence has emerged to support that claim. The penalty is up to 10 years per offense.

25 Only Mr. Trump – not Mr. Nauta – is charged with violations of the Espionage Act.

27 Mr. Trump has been charged with violating a law that makes it a crime to corruptly impede an official proceeding. The penalty is up to 20 years per offense.

28 Mr. Trump has been charged with violating a law that makes it a crime to conceal records to obstruct an official effort. The penalty is up to 20 years per offense.