The Craziest Details From the Trump Classified Documents Indictments

Things start getting wacky just ten pages into the original indictment, when prosecutors allege that from January through March 15, 2021, some of the boxes “containing hundreds of classified documents” that he removed from the White House were stored in an active Mar-a-Lago ballroom.

Don’t believe it? Well, there’s a picture.

Photo: Justice Department via AP

Some of Trump’s papers were moved from the ballroom to the business center at Mar-a-Lago, according to the indictment. But then employees decided they wanted to use the space for an office, so they dumped the boxes of highly sensitive national secrets in a bathroom.

Pics or it didn’t happen? Here you go:

Photo: Justice Department via AP

If you’re considering whether you should store your classified documents in the Lake Room bathroom or the storage room next to the liquor closet, you’re already in trouble.

Here’s a look at the stack of government documents Mar-a-Lago employees might have encountered while looking for some vodka when restocking the pool bar:

Photo: Justice Department via AP

Photo: Justice Department via AP

Okay, maybe I’m overreacting. Yes, the boxes were stored in a pretty public area, but it’s not as if highly sensitive information from our closest allies was thrown in a box with news clippings, then strewn across the floor, like a raccoon tossed them aside while rummaging for snacks.

Well, actually …

During a meeting with staff who did not possess security clearances, Trump allegedly whipped out Pentagon plans for attacking another country, declaring, “This totally wins my case, you know.” Trump was being recorded to help with a memoir that Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff, was working on.

Smith’s team later added Trump’s possession of this document to the list of charges he’s facing.

Although names were omitted from the indictment, CNN’s reporting indicates that Trump was trying to counter reports that the top U.S. general, Mark Milley, had talked him out of starting a war with Iran. In Trump’s defense, what was he supposed to do? Not expose secret military plans to win an argument Milley didn’t know they were having?

This sounds pretty bad. And yes, it seems Trump knew it. But if this random civilian thought, Huh, that’s a pretty cool map!, maybe it was all worth it.

Starting in March 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) “repeatedly demanded” that Trump turn over any presidential records in his possession. Rather than complying, he allegedly had employees move them around Mar-a-Lago, generating plenty of text and photographic evidence of his noncompliance:

Photo: Justice Department via AP

Prosecutors say Trump’s personal aide moved boxes of classified documents all over Mar-a-Lago for several months, then transported boxes in his personal vehicle and put them on a commercial truck to be sent back to NARA. Despite generating ample evidence of his activities, he allegedly told the FBI in May 2022 that he knew nothing about the papers. The indictment accuses him of making the following false and misleading statements:

After a grand jury issued a subpoena for any classified documents still at Mar-a-Lago, Trump met with two of his attorneys on May 23, 2022, to discuss how to respond. The indictment says these were Trump’s suggestions, as “memorialized” by one of his attorneys:

There is no evidence that Hillary Clinton’s lawyer willfully destroyed email evidence for her despite Trump’s repeated calls to “lock her up.” But Trump thought this move was so great that he suggested it again and again to one of his attorneys.

In perhaps the only somewhat smart Trump move described in the indictment, the former president allegedly gestured at his attorney rather than saying the words, “Why don’t you hide some evidence for me?”

A female “Trump family member,” who was probably the former First Lady, texted Nauta to let him know that she wanted her husband’s hoarding behaviors to remain land-based.

The superseding indictment starts with a handy summary of the six different ways Trump allegedly tried to “obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations” and hang on to the classified documents in his possession. Prosecutors say he really covered all the bases on obstruction of justice by lying, hiding documents, and suggesting that employees lie and destroy documents, then trying to have footage of these crimes deleted:

Apparently Trump wasn’t confident that his attorneys would follow his suggestion that they lie or destroy evidence. The superseding indictment says he changed his summer plans so he could be at Mar-a-Lago when his attorneys searched for classified materials to turn over in response to the grand jury subpoena:

In the days after prosecutors served a subpoena for security footage of the storage area, there was a flurry of phone calls, texts, and meetings between Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago property manager. Immediately after an attorney told Trump what the feds wanted, Nauta suddenly shifted his travel plans and headed back to the Florida resort. Various coworkers were given inconsistent explanations for the change of plans, and asked to keep Nauta’s presence a secret.

The superseding indictment alleges that after meeting with Nauta, on June 27, 2022, De Oliveira asked “Trump Employee 4” to step away from the IT office so they could talk privately. Then he said “the boss” (Trump) wanted the server holding the security footage deleted. Employee 4 said they did not know how to delete the server, and did not think they had the right to do so:

A few weeks later, after the FBI found classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Nauta called and texted another Trump employee, saying “someone just wants to make sure Carlos is good,” which appears to be mob-like code for “Trump wants to know if De Oliveira will sing to the Feds.” After the employee confirmed that De Oliveira was loyal, Trump allegedly called him and said he’d get him an attorney, according to the superseding indictment: