US federal court has unsealed an indictment against Donald Trump detailing 37 charges against the former President for retaining classified documents after leaving office.
The 49-page indictment alleged that Mr Trump shared a classified map related to a military operation and described a Pentagon “plan of attack”.
It is the Justice Department’s first official confirmation of a criminal case against Mr Trump relating to the retention of hundreds of documents at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.
The indictment claims that Mr Trump improperly removed scores of boxes from the White House to take them to Mar-a-Lago, many of them containing classified information.
One document allegedly retained by Mr Trump concerned a foreign country’s support of terrorism against US interests.
Materials came from the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies, the indictment said.
The indictment outlined two circumstances in which Mr Trump allegedly showed the documents to others.
One occurred in a meeting with a writer at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is said to have described federal officials’ “plan of attack” against him. It is claimed that Mr Trump acknowledged that he knew the information was “still a secret”.
In a later meeting with a representative from his political action committee, Mr Trump is said to have displayed “a classified map related to a military operation”.
Prosecutors said Mr Trump acknowledged he “should not be showing it to the representative and that the representative should not get too close”.
Charged alongside Mr Trump was Walt Nauta, an aide who was seen on surveillance camera removing boxes at Mar-a-Lago.
Prosecutors noted that Mr Trump had access to “the most sensitive classified documents and national security information”, including information from the intelligence community.
Mr Trump has vehemently denied wrongdoing and claimed the prosecution is politically motivated. In a video posted online on Thursday, he repeated his claim that the investigation was a “witch hunt”.
He is due to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon in Miami, where a federal grand jury had been hearing testimony as recently as this week.
If found guilty, Mr Trump could face a prison sentence.
It comes amid mounting legal issues for the former President, who has insisted it will not derail his campaign for reelection in 2024.
Mr Trump is due to go on trial in New York next March in a state case stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star.
Investigators are also continuing to probe efforts by Mr Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
A district attorney in Georgia is also investigating Trump over alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election in that state.
The White House has kept its distance from Mr Trump’s legal battles, and President Joe Biden declined to comment when asked by reporters in North Carolina about the indictment.
