By: Annie Xu
Former U.S. President Donald Trump faces 37 charges, including 31 violations of the Espionage Act. The Espionage Act lays out how the president should conceal and contain classified documents. Trump was found storing classified documents regarding the nation’s potential insecurities, and other nations’ nuclear capacities, among many others.
Many of the nation’s classified documents were found in Trump’s private Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. Locations include a ballroom, a bathroom, his office, his bedroom, and a storage room. The ballroom continued to be used for events while the classified documents were stored there. Photos of these boxes of classified documents show some of them knocked over with a symbol that signifies that it can and should only be shared with the nation’s closest allies.
Trump isn’t only being charged for storing classified documents insecurely, he’s also being held for sharing classified information with people who were short of the necessary security clearances required to view them. The investigation started after the National Archives discovered classified documents in some papers Trump had returned in 2022. He returned these papers a year after his term was over.
Justice Department officials were granted judicial approval for a search warrant in the window of May 23 to June 2 last year. However, before this date, it was seen that Trump ordered his personal aide, Waltine “Walt” Nauta, to relocate 64 boxes out of Mar-a-Lago so the former president could sift through the documents and classified information. It was later found out that Nauta only returned 30 boxes.
After the search, the Justice Department found over 100 documents that were, or contained sensitive and classified information. These included reports from the CIA, the Defense Department, the National Security Agency and the State of Department, among many more. Nauta was put on trial along with Trump for different, but similar charges. He is said to have made many false claims about his involvement in the entire ordeal.
Though all of this, Trump continues to plead not guilty. On Friday, Trump proclaimed that he was changing his legal team. He replaced two of his attorneys, Jim Trusty and John Rowley, with Todd Blanche and another firm that will be revealed later on. Blanche is assisting Trump with another case regarding a rumored hush money payment.
Trump and his partners framed the indictment as a way to get rid of him as a political opponent. Hawley, who is a lawyer and a former state attorney general tweeted, “if the people in power can jail their political opponents at will, we don’t have a republic.”