Donald Trump kept boxes with US nuclear program documents and foreign weapons details, indictment says – live | Donald Trump
Trump ‘took secret US nuclear program documents’, says indictment
The indictment reads that Trump stored in his boxes “information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack”.
It goes on:
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.
Key events
Summary of the day so far
Here’s a quick recap of today’s developments:
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Former US president Donald Trump faces 37 counts in connection with keeping hundreds of classified documents in his possession after leaving the White House, according to a 49-page federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon.
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Trump twice disclosed national security information in separate incidents in 2021 and took steps to retain classified documents that he knew he could not keep because they had been subpoenaed by the justice department, the indictment reads.
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The former president also hoarded materials of the highest sensitivity after he left the White House, including documents on US nuclear programmes, potential military vulnerabilities of the US and allies, and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, it says.
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Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Mar-a-Lago documents case, said in a brief remarks Friday that his office intended to seek “a speedy trial” against Trump, adding that was “consistent with the public interest”. However, Smith did not say exactly when a trial may be possible.
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In addition, the indictment named Trump’s former valet, Walt Nauta, as a co-defendant, alleging that he entered into a conspiracy with Trump to obstruct justice, withheld documents or records, corruptly concealed documents in a federal investigation, engaged in a scheme to conceal and made false statements.
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Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm ET. Posting on Truth Social, Trump announced he would be represented by defence lawyer Todd Blanche, while his attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley released a statement to say that they had quit working for him.
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A federal judge appointed by Trump who last year drew scrutiny for a ruling that was seen as deferential to the former president may oversee proceedings in the case over his possession of classified documents, a source familiar with the summons told the Guardian.
Donald Trump spent the morning playing golf with Florida Republican Carlos Gimenez, the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported earlier today.
Gimenez later responded to Haberman’s tweet with a photo of him with the former president:
A lawyer for the Republican congressman and serial fabulist, George Santos, has said that the co-signers on a $500,000 bail package connected to Santos’ federal indictment are members of his family.
In a letter to a New York judge, attorney Joseph Murray appealed an order this week to reveal the identities of three people who guaranteed Santos’ $500,000 bond on fraud charges.
Murray wrote:
Defendant has essentially publicly revealed that the suretors are family members and not lobbyists, donors or others seeking to exert influence over the defendant.
At his arraignment in Long Island last month, Santos, 34, pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and making false statements.
The New York Times sought the identification of Santos’s bail guarantors, arguing they should be identified as they had a chance to exert political influence over a congressman. Other news outlets joined the Times in its effort.
Ramon Antonio Vargas
In news not related to Donald Trump but involving one of his supporters, Markus Maly of Virginia received a six-year prison sentence for his role in the January 6 attack on Congress, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
A grand jury had previously found Maly, 49, guilty of interfering with police during a civil disorder, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon as well as entering and remaining in a restricted building while armed, among other charges, prosecutors said.
Authorities established that Maly joined a mob of Trump supporters who rioted at the Capitol on the day Congress convened to certify the former president’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
He was convicted of spraying a chemical irritant at a line of police officers who were defending the Capitol’s lower west terrace. In addition to serving time in prison, Maly must also spend three years under supervision after his release, prosecutors said.
His co-defendants Jeffrey Scott Brown and Peter Schwartz were also found guilty of roles in the case. Schwartz later received a 14-year prison sentence. And Brown was given a prison sentence of four years.
Maly raised more than $16,000 in funds for his defense from an online campaign that described him as a January 6 prisoner of war, the Associated Press had reported earlier. Prosecutors sought to take that money back in the form of a fine, arguing that Maly had a public defender and did not owe any legal fees.
But neither court records nor prosecutors’ announcement about Maly’s sentence mentioned a fine for him as part of his sentence.
Maly is among more than 1,000 people to be charged in connection with the January 6 attack, according to prosecutors. Numerous defendants have been convicted and sentenced to prison.
Top congressional Democrats urge Trump supporters to ‘let case proceed peacefully’
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, the two top Democrats in the Congress, have released a joint statement calling for the indictment to “play out through the legal process, without any outside political or ideological interference”.
The statement reads:
No one is above the law – including Donald Trump.
It goes on to say:
We encourage Mr Trump’s supporters and critics alike to let this case proceed peacefully in court.
The US secret service is preparing for Donald Trump’s appearance at a federal court in Miami on Tuesday, but the agency “will not seek any special accommodations outside of what would be required to ensure the former Presidents continued safety”, according to spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.
A statement by Guglielmi reads:
As with any site visited by a protectee, the Secret Service is in constant coordination with the necessary entities to ensure protective requirements are met,
He added:
We have the utmost confidence in the professionalism and commitment to security shared by our law enforcement partners in Florida.
Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm ET.
Maya Yang
Donald Trump took classified documents including information on nuclear weapons in the US and secret plans to attack a foreign country, according to a 49-page federal indictment unsealed Friday afternoon.
The former US president, alongside a military valet, now faces a sweeping 37-count felony indictment related to the mishandling of classified documents.
Here are five of the most shocking revelations in the indictment, according to my colleague Maya Yang.
We have a clip of the statement by Jack Smith, the US justice department special counsel who filed charges against Donald Trump.
In a short address earlier today, Smith said his team would seek “a speedy trial” after the department unsealed a 37-count indictment against the former president.
Donald Trump ally, Republican Arizona representative Andy Biggs responded to Trump’s indictment from the justice department by saying that “we have no reached a war phase.”
Biggs, who previously spoke out against Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg over Trump’s indictment in March, went on to add:
Eye for an eye.
Biggs spox says this is in reference to Trump indictment, and how the Republicans has to step up and counter their efforts. “The Republican Party has to prosecute people like Hunter and Joe Biden as the party now has a mountain of evidence.” https://t.co/s3OJm2MPmt
— Billy House (@HouseInSession) June 9, 2023
John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, has reacted to his former boss’s indictment, calling for his immediate withdrawal as a presidential candidate.
Donald Trump should immediately withdraw as a candidate for president. Criminal charges are piling up around him. If Trump truly stood for America First policies, he would support the rule of law instead of continually flouting it. Withdraw now!
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) June 9, 2023
With Donald Trump being the first US president to be federally indicted, what will come next? Will he go to prison? What are other Republicans, including his presidential contenders such as Florida governor Ron DeSantis, saying?
The Guardian’s David Smith reports:
It is often tempting to hype every Trump drama out of proportion and then lose sight of when something genuinely monumental has happened. Thursday night’s action by the justice department was genuinely monumental.
First, it raises the question: what was Trump doing with government secrets? It was reported last month that prosecutors obtained an audio recording in which Trump talks about holding on to a classified Pentagon document related to a potential attack on Iran.
Second, Trump could soon join a notorious club that includes Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac of France and Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak of South Korea. All have been prosecuted and convicted of corruption in the past 15 years.
It’s Trump’s latest stress test for American democracy: can the state hold a former president accountable and apply the rule of law? There was a near miss for Richard Nixon, who could have faced federal charges over Watergate but was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.
The White House knows it cannot afford to put a foot wrong. Joe Biden tries to avoid commenting on Trump’s myriad legal troubles. The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has also kept them at arm’s length by appointing Jack Smith as special counsel. It is Smith who investigated the Mar-a-Lago documents case.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, says: “I don’t think he’s an overreaching prosecutor. He’s very rigorous and vigorous and independent and that’s what you want here and that’s what’s needed. I don’t think Merrick Garland had anything to do with it except appointing him.”
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Here are some of the images coming out Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort where he has been accused of possessing classified documents:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2023/jun/09/donald-trump-republicans-rally-ex-us-president-indictment-2024-race-politics-live-updates Donald Trump kept boxes with US nuclear program documents and foreign weapons details, indictment says – live | Donald Trump
