Trump indictment unsealed: what are the charges against Trump and could he face jail time?
Former President Donald Trump was charged Thursday with federal crimes in connection with his alleged refusal to return classified documents to federal authorities after he left the White House.
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What charges is Donald Trump facing related to classified documents?
Trump was already the first former president to face criminal charges and is now the first to face federal criminal charges. He was indicted in New York in April in a separate case concerning hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign. And the twice-impeached former president could face additional legal troubles given that he is the target of several additional ongoing civil and criminal investigations.
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Is there potential for further legal action to be taken against Donald Trump?
The indictment, which was unsealed Friday, charges Trump with 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information under the Espionage Act and one count of false statements and representations.
Together with his body man Walt Nauta, Trump was also charged with one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of withholding a document or record, one count of corruptly concealing a document or record, one count of concealing a document in a document in a federal investigation, and one count of scheming to conceal. Nauta was additionally charged with one count of false statements and representations.
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What role did Walt Nauta play in the case?
Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department in November to investigate the case, said in a press conference Friday that he intended to pursue a "speedy trial."
"Our laws that protect national defense Information are critical to the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced," he said. "Violations of those laws put our country at risk."
Trump said Thursday that he is an "innocent man" and framed the indictment as a political attack designed to undermine his 2024 presidential campaign. Other Republicans, including many of his GOP rivals in the primary, have repeated that defense.
"They're trying to destroy our reputation so they can win an election," Trump said.
Here's what you need to know about the indictment and what comes next.
An indictment is a document that lays out crimes a grand jury -- a group of 16 to 23 people selected at random -- believes someone committed. Trump's announcement on Thursday means at least 12 members of a federal grand jury were convinced, given the evidence provided by the Justice Department, that there is probable cause Trump committed a federal crime and should face a trial if prosecutors continue to pursue the case.
The decision to indict doesn't necessarily indicate guilt on Trump's part; his innocence or guilt will be decided at a trial. It also doesn't stop him from running for president. But during his arraignment in Miami federal court Tuesday, Trump will be put on notice of the allegations against him, which he is expected to challenge.
The indictment, which was filed in Florida federal court, says the classified documents that Trump had in his possession included information relating to US and foreign defense, various nations' weapons capabilities, and US nuclear programs. The documents also detailed "potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack," as well as "plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack," according to the indictment.
"The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military and human sources, and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods," the indictment states.
Trump allegedly stored the documents throughout Mar-a-Lago, including in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room. He's alleged to have twice shown the documents to people who did not have a security clearance, including a group featuring a writer, a publisher, and members of his staff, as well as a representative for his political action committee.
Trump knew that he had held on to "secret information" that he hadn't declassified before leaving office, the indictment says, and he acknowledged this in a conversation with an unidentified writer that his aides recorded with his consent.
The indictment says that Trump then "endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations" into his retention of the documents and to "conceal" that he had done so by directing his staff to move the documents around his properties, and by proposing that his attorneys lie about him having the documents. Trump also is accused of having suggested hiding or destroying them, at one point telling his lawyers, "Well look isn't it better if there are no documents?"
Nauta allegedly aided in that process. He's accused of making false statements to the FBI about how the documents got to Trump's residence and whether they were stored in a secure location. At Trump's instruction, he also allegedly moved more than 60 boxes of documents before one of the former president's attorneys was supposed to review them as part of their response to a DOJ subpoena.
The attorney eventually reviewed the remaining boxes, and put all the documents with classified markings in a folder. Trump suggested they take those documents back to their hotel room and "pluck ... out" anything "really bad," the lawyer told prosecutors. The attorney later turned over that folder to federal officials.
Trump's legal team then certified to the DOJ that they had complied with the subpoena, not knowing that Trump and Nauta had allegedly conspired to prevent them from reviewing most of the boxes of documents.
The charges carry potential prison sentences, though it's not at all clear that Trump will even be convicted. Each count related to Espionage Act violations alone could carry a maximum sentence of up to 10 years. For the conspiracy and false statements charges, it's five years per offense; for the obstruction charges, it's 20.
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What is the maximum penalty for felony charges related to classified documents?
But there's a logistical question as to whether Trump could even go to prison given his required Secret Service detail and security concerns. These are uncharted waters for a former president.
Trump's security needs similarly limit the court's options for jailing him pre-trial, and as a candidate for president he would seem to pose little flight risk. He was allowed to return home following his arraignment in New York and is unlikely to be jailed this time.
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Is there any chance that Donald Trump will avoid being convicted?
Trump's arraignment in Miami will likely follow a similar format to his arraignment in New York where he showed up in court to hear the charges against him and pleaded not guilty. He was fingerprinted, but not put in handcuffs and did not have his mugshot taken.
US District Judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed in 2019, is reportedly overseeing the case for now. She was previously appointed as a special master to examine the documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago last year and was criticized for delivering Trump several perplexing wins in those proceedings.
As with the case against him in New York, the Florida court case could extend well into the 2024 campaign season or even beyond the election.
A number of Trump's rivals in the GOP primary were quick to defend him Thursday.
"The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted. Right-wing activist Vivek Ramaswamy repeated his promise to pardon Trump if he's elected and in a statement Thursday called the indictment "an affront to every citizen."
Republicans might be wary of using the latest indictment as a cudgel against the former president because the base still overwhelmingly approves of him -- and his first indictment didn't change that. He remains the frontrunner in the primary, with a 30 percentage point polling advantage on average over DeSantis.
Sen. Mitt Romney, a longtime Trump critic, was among the few Republicans to support the Justice Department's decision to move forward with indicting Trump. He called the allegations "serious" in a statement.
"By all appearances, the Justice Department and special counsel have exercised due care, affording Mr. Trump the time and opportunity to avoid charges that would not generally have been afforded to others," Romney said.
Trump was indicted in April on charges related to hush money payments. The indictment includes 34 felony counts of falsification of business records to "conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election."
Though the crime of falsifying business records can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor under New York law, prosecutors elevated the charges to felonies, arguing Trump falsified records with the intent of covering up another crime.
The indictment didn't specify what that crime might be. But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has said that his team believes Trump tried to cover up a violation of New York state election law, which prohibits promoting a candidacy by unlawful means, including "planned false statements to tax authorities."
He could face up to four years in prison for the falsification of business records (though serving time would be unusual for first-time offenders) and possible fines if convicted. The next in-person court date is December 4, and the case is currently slated to go to trial in January.
Smith is also leading a separate investigation into Trump's involvement in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol.
That inquiry follows a comprehensive House committee investigation last year that concluded that Trump had incited the insurrection and conspired to defraud the US government, referring him and other associates to the DOJ for prosecution. If charged and convicted on that basis, Trump could face up to 35 years in prison and more than $500,000 in fines.
Finally, Trump faces a civil inquiry in New York centered on his business dealings. New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, his company, and his three children for $250 million last year over alleged fraud, including lying about the value of the business, spanning a decade. A trial in that case is scheduled for October.
But even if all of these investigations may complicate Trump's attempt to win the White House, federal charges could become moot if he wins. Under a longstanding Department of Justice policy, a sitting president cannot be charged with a federal crime. That's why former special counsel Robert Mueller never considered whether Trump committed a crime as part of his investigation of Russian interference in 2016. But that policy technically only governs the DOJ, raising the unresolved legal question as to whether district attorneys could prosecute the president for state or local crimes.
Update, June 9, 3:30 pm ET: This story has been updated with additional information on the text of the indictment, comments from Smith's press conference, and Republicans' reactions to news of Trump's indictment.