The Mar-a-Lago Classified Documents Case
Originally filed on June 8th, 2023
- Superseding indictment filed on July 27th, 2023
Facts
- The classified materials are alleged to contain classified national security information regarding potential vulnerabilities and counter-attack strategies for the United States against foreign adversaries.
Tens of thousands of members and guests visited Mar-a-Lago between January 2021 and August 2022. The club hosted more than 150 social events.
The boxes brought from the White House were stored in various parts of the resort.
- Trump knowingly showed off classified material at least two times.
- In July 202I, at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey ("The Bedminster Club"), during an audio-recorded meeting with a writer, a publisher, and two members of his staff, none of whom possessed a security clearance, TRUMP showed and described a "plan of attack" that TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official. TRUMP told the individuals that the plan was "highly confidential" and "secret." TRUMP also said, "as president I could have declassified it,'" and, "Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."
- In August or September 2021, at The Bedminster Club, TRUMP showed a representative of his political action committee who did not possess a security clearance a classified map related to a military operation and told the representative that he should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close.
On March 30th, 2022, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the unlawful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. A grand jury issued a subpoena soon after.
Trump accused of obstructing the FBI/grand jury investigations by:
Suggested to his attorney to lie about having the documents.
Directed Waltine Nauta to hide boxes of documents from Trump's attorney.
Suggested that his attorney hide or destroy documents.
Handing only some documents over while retaining others and lying about it.
Certifying a knowingly false statement that all documents called for had been produced.
Attempting to delete security camera footage to conceal information.
Trump returned some documents after months of delay.
Trump's public statements as candidate for president of the United States:
- On August 18, 2016, TRUMP stated,
- "In my administration I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law."
- On September 6, 2016, TRUMP stated,
- ·'We also need to fight this battle by collecting intelligence and then protecting, protecting our classified secrets. . . . We can't have someone in the Oval Office who doesn't understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified."
- On September 7, 2016, TRUMP stated,
- "(O]ne of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information.'
- On September 19, 2016, TRUMP stated,
- "We also need the best protection of classified information.
- On November 3, 2016, TRUMP stated,
- "Service members here in North Carolina have risked their lives to acquire classified intelligence to protect our country.
Trump's public statements as President of the United States:
- On February 16th, 2017:
- "The first thing I thought of when I heard about it is, how does the press get this information that's classified? How do they do it? You know why? Because it's an illegal process, and the press should be ashamed of themselves. But more importantly, the people that gave out the information to the press should be ashamed of themselves. Really ashamed."
- On July 26th, 2018:
- "As the head of the executive branch and Commander in Chief, I have a unique, Constitutional responsibility to protect the Nation's classified information, including by controlling access to it. . .. More broadly, the issue of a former executive branch official's) security clearance raises larger questions about the practice of former officials maintaining access to our Nation's most sensitive secrets long after their time in Government has ended. Such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have transitioned into highly partisan positions and seek to use real or perceived access to sensitive information to validate their political attacks. Any access granted to our Nation's secrets should be in furtherance of national, not personal, interests.""
- Trump was personally involved in the transportation of his documents to Mar-a-Lago.
Trump's documents were, for a time, stored publicly in the Mar-a-Lago Club's White and Gold Ballroom, where events and gatherings took place.
Photographs were taken of boxes toppled over in the storage room with classified information both available for view and texted back and forth between employees and lawyers.
In May of 2022, Waltine Nauta made false and misleading statements to the FBI
- Lied about being aware of Trump reviewing the material in his boxes.
- Lied about knowing how the boxes got to the residence.
- Lied about knowing where the boxes were stored.
Of the 15 boxes Trump provided NARA in January of 2022, 14 boxes contained 197 classified documents, 98 were marked "SECRET", 30 were marked "TOP SECRET", and the remainder were marked "CONFIDENTIAL."
In response to a grand jury Subpoena, Trump told his attorneys
- I don't want anybody looking, I don' t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don 't, I don' t want you looking through my boxes.
- Well what if we, what happens if we just don 't respond at all or don 't play ball with them?
- Wouldn't it be better if we just told them we don't have anything here?
- Well look isn't it better if there are no documents?
While meeting with attorney's, Trump told the following story:
- Attorney, he was great, he did a great job. You know what? He said, he said that it - 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 them.
Trump demanded to be present and changed his travel plans accordingly to oversee the attorneys going through his boxes to search for classified material.
Between May 23rd and June 2nd, Trump instructed Nauta to remove a total of ~64 boxes from the storage room and to bring them to Trump's residence.
- On May 24, 2022, between 5:30 p.m. and 5:38 p.m., NAUTA removed three boxes from the Storage Room.
- On May 30, 2022, at 9:08 a.m., TRUMP and NAUTA spoke by phone for approximately 30 seconds. Between I0:02 a.m. and 11:51a.m., NAUTA removed a total of approximately 50 boxes from the Storage Room.
Trump implied to Attorney 1 to discard any particularly sensitive classified material.
- He made a funny motion as though - well okay why don't you take them with you to your hotel room and if there's anything really bad in there, like, you know, pluck it out. And that was the motion that he made. He didn't say that.
Trump took classified material that he and Nauta thought were important or relevant and packed them on a plane and flew them north for Trump's Summer vacation.
In June, after a request for camera footage in Mar-a-Lago, Trump likely instructed Nauta to return to Mar-a-Lago and delete security camera footage.
Timeline
- Beginning in March 2021, NARA repeatedly demanded that Trump turn over records.
- On January 17th, of 2022, after months of demands from NARA, Trump provided only 15 boxes/197 documents with classification markings.
- On February 9th, 2022, NARA referred the discovery of classified documents to the DoJ.
- On March 30th, 2022, the FBI opened a criminal investigation.
- On April 26th, 2022, a federal grand jury opened an investigation.
- On May 11th, 2022, the grand jury issued a subpoena to Trump to produce all documents with classification markings in his possession.
- On June 3rd,, 2022, Trump's attorney provided 38 more documents.
- On August 8th, 2022, the FBI recovered 102 more classified documents while executing a court-authorized search warrant.