WASHINGTON: After his indictment on Friday on federal charges in the classified documents case, former US President Donald Trump said, I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former president of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country, and is currently leading, by far, all candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in polls of the 2024 presidential election.
I am aninnocent man! he lamented on his social media platform.He will appear before a judge on Tuesday Aileen Cannon whom Trump himself had appointed.The indictment gives the clearest picture yet of the files that Trump took with him when he left the White House.
It said he had illegally kept hold of documents concerning US nuclear programmes; potential vulnerabilities of the US and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.
One document concerned a foreign countrys 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.Investigators seized roughly 13,000 documents from Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, nearly a year ago.
In all, roughly 300 documents were marked classified, including some at the top secret level, even though one of Trumps lawyers had previously said all records with classified markings had been returned to the government.02:45'I never thought it possible...': Former US President Donald Trump indicted in classified documents probeProsecutors presented evidence that Trump shared a highly sensitive plan of attack against Iran to visitors at his golf club in Bedminster, N.
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in July 2021 and was recorded on tape describing the material as highly confidential and secret, while it admitting it had not been declassified.
In another incident in September, 2021 he shared a top secret military map with a staffer at his political action committee who did not have a security clearance.The indictment also names one of his personal aides, Waltine Nauta, as a co-conspirator who assisted in obstructing the investigation into the former presidents retention of sensitive defence documents at his residence and resort in Florida.The indictment says that Trump stored the boxes throughout Mar-a-Lago, including in a ballroom, a bathroom and a shower, as well as in an office and his bedroom.
His lawyers had told investigators that documents were kept only in a storage room.
The filing includes many pictures of what appear to be bankers boxes, some containing highly sensitive national documents, which were haphazardly moved by Nauta and other aides at Trumps behest.
Some of the boxes appear to be sagging and on December 7, 2021 Nauta found that one of the boxes had toppled and spilled its contents on the floor.
The files that splayed on the carpet included the designation SECRET/REL TO USA, FVEY which meant that they were meant to be seen by officials from the US, UK New Zealand and Australia with high-level security clearances.Trump himself turned on US President Joe Biden, accusing him of taking classified material, too, although legal experts say there are no parallels between the two.
The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional boxes in Chinatown, DC , with even more boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is secured by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time, he claimed.After classified documents were found at Bidens thinktank and at ex-vice-president Mike Pences Indiana home, their lawyers notified authorities and arranged for them to be handed over.
They also authorised other searches by federal authorities.