By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JILL COLVIN and LINDSAY WHITEHURST (Associated Press)
The 49-page federal indictment of former President Donald Trump lays out a shocking timeline of occasions, detailing allegations that he not solely mishandled delicate materials, but additionally took steps to cover information and impede investigators.
Here are a few of the key occasions resulting in the 37 legal costs towards Trump, in accordance with the indictment:
Jan. 20, 2021: As Trump leaves the White House, he directs the motion of dozens of storage containers to Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors say. The containers, packed by Trump and his White House workers, comprise newspaper clippings, letters, photographs and different mementos from his time in workplace, but additionally lots of of labeled paperwork that, as a former president, he wasn’t licensed to have.
Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential information are thought of federal, not non-public property and should be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration. Multiple federal legal guidelines govern the dealing with of labeled and delicate paperwork, together with statutes making it a criminal offense to take away such materials and maintain it at an unauthorized location.
After Jan. 20, 2021: Some containers introduced from the White House are saved on a stage in certainly one of Mar-a-Lago’s gilded ballrooms. A photograph within the indictment exhibits containers stacked on a stage.
March 15, 2021: Boxes are moved from the ballroom to the enterprise middle at Mar-a-Lago.
April 2021: Some containers are moved into a toilet and bathe. A photograph included within the indictment exhibits them stacked subsequent to a bathroom, an arrogance and a trash can.
May 2021: Trump directs staff to scrub out a storage room in a extremely accessible space on Mar-a-Lago’s floor ground so it may be used to retailer his containers, the indictment says. Trump additionally directs that some containers be delivered to his Bedminster, New Jersey, summer season residence.
On or about May 6, 2021: Realizing that some paperwork from Trump’s presidency could also be lacking, the National Archives asks that he flip over any presidential information he might have stored upon leaving the White House. The company makes subsequent, repeated calls for.
June 2021: The National Archives warns Trump by means of his representatives that it’ll refer the matter to the Justice Department if he doesn’t comply.
June 24, 2021: Boxes are moved to the storage room. More than 80 containers are stored there.
July 21, 2021: Trump allegedly exhibits a army “plan of attack” that he says is “highly confidential” to a author interviewing him at his Bedminster property. Trump remarks, “as president I could have declassified it. … Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” in accordance with the indictment, citing a recording of the interview.
August or September 2021: Trump allegedly exhibits a labeled map regarding a international army operation to a consultant of his political motion committee at his Bedminster golf course, the indictment says. Trump tells the individual that he shouldn’t be exhibiting anybody the map and that the particular person shouldn’t get too shut.
November 2021: Trump directs his govt assistant and “body man” Walt Nauta and one other worker to start out shifting containers from a storage room to his residence for him to evaluate. Nauta is charged within the indictment as Trump’s co-conspirator.
Dec. 7, 2021: Nauta finds that a number of of Trump’s containers have fallen, spilling papers onto the storage room ground, the indictment says. Among them is a doc with a “SECRET” intelligence marking. According to the indictment, Nauta texts one other Trump worker, “I opened the door and found this,” to which the opposite worker replies, “Oh no oh no.”
Late December 2021: The National Archives continues to demand that Trump flip over lacking information from his presidency. In late December 2021, a Trump consultant tells the company that 12 containers of information have been discovered and are able to be retrieved.
January 17, 2022: Trump turns over 15 containers to the National Archives. According to the indictment, Nauta and one other Trump worker load them into Nauta’s automobile and take them to a industrial truck for supply to the company.
The containers are discovered to comprise 197 paperwork with labeled markings, together with 69 marked confidential, 98 secret and 30 prime secret. Some paperwork have markings suggesting they embrace info from extremely delicate human sources or the gathering of digital “signals” licensed by a court docket beneath the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Feb. 9, 2022: The National Archives refers the matter to the Justice Department after a preliminary evaluate finds the containers comprise quite a few labeled paperwork. The particular agent answerable for the company’s Office of the Inspector General writes, “Of most significant concern was that highly classified records were unfoldered, intermixed with other records” and in any other case improperly recognized.
Feb. 10, 2022: Trump’s Save America PAC releases an announcement insisting the return of the paperwork had been “routine” and “no big deal.” Trump insists the “papers were given easily and without conflict and on a very friendly basis,” and provides, “It was a great honor to work with” the National Archives “to help formally preserve the Trump Legacy.”
Feb. 18, 2022: In a letter to a congressional oversight committee, the National Archives reveals the containers contained labeled info and confirms the Justice Department referral. Trump’s Save America PAC releases one other assertion insisting, “The National Archives did not ‘find’ anything,” however “were given, upon request, Presidential Records in an ordinary and routine process to ensure the preservation of my legacy and in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.”
March 30, 2022: The FBI opens its investigation.
April 12, 2022: The National Archives informs Trump that, on the Justice Department’s request, it intends to offer the FBI with the 15 containers he turned over on Jan. 17, 2022. Trump’s consultant asks for an extension till April 29.
April 26, 2022: The grand jury investigation begins.
April 29, 2022: The Justice Department asks Trump’s legal professionals for instant entry to the 15 containers, citing nationwide safety pursuits and the necessity for “an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported.” Trump’s legal professionals once more ask for an extension, saying they should evaluate the fabric to “ascertain whether any specific document is subject to privilege.”
May 10, 2022: The National Archives informs Trump’s legal professionals that it’ll present the FBI entry to the containers as quickly as May 12.
May 11, 2022: A grand jury points a subpoena to Trump and his workplace requiring that they flip over all labeled supplies of their possession.
May 23, 2022: Trump’s legal professionals advise him to adjust to the subpoena, however Trump balks, telling them, “I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes.” Prosecutors, citing notes from one of many legal professionals, say Trump puzzled aloud about dodging the subpoena, asking his counsel, “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” and ”isn’t it higher if there aren’t any paperwork?”
May 26, 2022: Nauta is interviewed by the FBI and, in accordance with prosecutors, repeatedly lies about his data of the motion of containers at Mar-a-Lago. Nauta claims he wasn’t conscious of containers being delivered to Trump’s residence for his evaluate and says he didn’t understand how containers turned over to the National Archives acquired to Trump’s residence.
Nauta additionally lies when requested whether or not he knew the place Trump’s containers had been saved earlier than they went to his residence and whether or not they’d been in a secured or locked location, prosecutors say. His reply, in accordance with the indictment: “I wish, I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. I don’t — I honestly just don’t know.”
June 2, 2022: One of Trump’s legal professionals returns to Mar-a-Lago to look containers within the storage room and finds 38 further labeled paperwork — 5 paperwork marked confidential, 16 marked secret and 17 marked prime secret. After the search, prosecutors say, Trump asks: “Did you find anything? … Is it bad? Good?” and makes a plucking movement that the lawyer takes to imply that he ought to take out something “really bad” earlier than turning over the papers.
Prior to the search, prosecutors say, Trump had Nauta transfer 64 containers from the storage room to his residence. Of these, 30 had been moved again to the storage room, leaving 34 containers in Trump’s residence and out of the lawyer’s sight.
June 3, 2022: FBI brokers and a Justice Department lawyer go to Mar-a-Lago to gather the 38 labeled paperwork from Trump’s lawyer. They are in a single accordion folder, double-wrapped in tape. While there, investigators are allowed to go to the storage room, however are “explicitly prohibited” from wanting inside containers, “giving no opportunity” for them “to confirm that no documents with classification markings remained,” in accordance with a court docket submitting.
Trump tells investigations he’s “an open book,” in accordance with the indictment. Another Trump lawyer, appearing as his custodian of information, supplies investigators a sworn certification that prosecutors say falsely claimed that they had performed a “diligent search” of containers moved from the White House and “any and all responsive documents” had been turned over.
Earlier within the day, prosecutors say, some containers had been loaded onto a aircraft so Trump might take them to Bedminster for the summer season.
June 8, 2022: The Justice Department sends Trump’s lawyer a letter asking that the storage room be secured, and that “all of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago (along with any other items in that room) be preserved in that room in their current condition until farther notice.”
July 2022: The grand jury is proven surveillance video of containers being moved at Mar-a-Lago.
Aug. 5, 2022: The Justice Department applies for a warrant to look Mar-a-Lago, citing “probable cause” that further presidential information and labeled paperwork had been being saved there. U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart approves the applying the identical day.
Aug. 8 2022: The FBI searches searches Mar-a-Lago, seizing 102 labeled paperwork — 75 within the storage room and 27 in Trump’s workplace, together with three present in workplace desks.
The Justice Department says in a subsequent court docket submitting that the outcomes name “into serious question” earlier representations by Trump’s authorized staff that that they had performed a “diligent search” and that no labeled paperwork remained.
Aug. 12, 2022: Reinhart makes public the warrant authorizing the Mar-a-Lago search. The doc reveals that federal brokers are investigating potential violations of three federal legal guidelines, together with the Espionage Act.
Aug. 26, 2022: A extremely redacted model of the affidavit laying out the FBI’s rationale for looking Mar-a-Lago is made public.
Aug. 30, 2022: After Trump’s legal professionals request a particular grasp to evaluate the paperwork for doable govt privilege, the Justice Department responds with a submitting that reveals new particulars in regards to the investigation and a photograph of seized paperwork with marking like “TOP SECRET//SCI” splayed out on a Mar-a-Lago carpet.
March 24, 2023: One of Trump’s legal professionals, M. Evan Corcoran, testifies earlier than the Mar-a-Lago grand jury in Washington after being compelled to take action by a decide. The Justice Department, in a massively important second within the investigation, succeeded in piercing the attorney-client privilege by arguing that Trump had used Corcoran’s authorized companies in furtherance of a criminal offense.
June 8, 2023: A grand jury in Miami indicts Trump and Nauta. Trump broadcasts the indictment on his Truth Social platform, calling it “a DARK DAY for the United States of America.” In a video publish, he says, “I’m innocent and we will prove that very, very soundly and hopefully very quickly.”
June 9, 2023: The indictment is made public. It exhibits that Trump is charged with 37 felony counts, together with conspiracy to impede justice, corruptly concealing a doc or file and willful retention of nationwide protection info. Nauta is charged with six counts, together with conspiracy to impede justice.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who introduced the case, makes a quick public assertion at his workplace in Washington, saying: “Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced. Violations of those laws put our country at risk.”
June 13, 2023: Trump is scheduled to make an preliminary court docket look at 3 p.m. alongside Nauta on the federal courthouse in Miami.
___
More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump
Source: www.bostonherald.com”