As I’m sure everyone knows by now, Trump and his valet Walt Nauta have been indicted. If you are keeping score, this is Trump’s second indictment and his first federal indictment. We are expecting indictments from Georgia later this summer, and the J6 investigation at some point but nobody knows when.
You can read this indictment here.
(I asked my readers once what I should call my document summaries and my favorite answer was ‘over the cliff notes.’)
Jack Smith, Special Counsel, gave a short talk yesterday. He made two points. First, he said that the indictment came as a result of an investigation that followed the facts and the law, and the indictment itself was handed down by a grand jury of citizens in Florida, according to the rule of law. Second, he urged everyone to read the indictment.
If you start reading, you’ll find that it was written for public consumption. The facts are clearly presented and legal terms are explained.
Meanwhile, with annotations in red, here is my summary and analysis. To make it easier to follow the story, I put the events in chronological order.
Note: When (good) prosecutors put facts into an indictment, they know they have evidence to prove the facts beyond a reasonable doubt.
This is what is known as a speaking indictment. The only requirement is that an indictment contains a plain, concise, and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged and signed by an attorney for the government. But prosecutors have discretion about how much information they include. Sometimes they “speak” through the indictments. In this case, no doubt, the motive was to make sure the public has full and accurate information.
First, an observation. In all of his court filings since leaving office, Trump refers to himself as “President Trump.” In the special master case, the DOJ referred to him as “Plaintiff.” Now, the DOJ refers to him as “Trump.”
The facts
The indictment opened by acknowledging that while he was president, Trump had lawful access to all these documents. We also learn that while president, he gathered clippings, letters, notes, cards, official documents and other materials in cardboard boxes that he kept in the White House. Among these mementos were hundreds of classified documents.
(A theme throughout the indictment is that Trump treated classified documents like his personal possessions.)
These classified documents he mingled with his personal items included those containing information about:
- 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 foreign attack.
The indictment states the obvious: “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.”
What follows is evidence meticulously tracing the movement of these documents.
12:00 pm, January 20, 2021
Trump ceased to be president. “As he departed the White House he caused scores of boxes, many of which contained classified documents, to be transported to The Mar-a-Lago Club. Trump was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents.”
(The use of the word “caused” is interesting. My guess is that the prosecutors do not want to reveal details at this point, but they want to make clear that Trump took them deliberately.)
Mar-a-Lago was not authorized to house these documents and while the documents were stored there, “Mar-a-Lago Club hosted more than 150 social events, including weddings, movie premieres, and fundraisers that together drew tens of thousands of guests.”
Here is what the indictment says about how the boxes went from the White House to Mar-a-Lago:
“Trump and his White House staff, including Nauta, packed items, including some of Trump’s boxes.”
These facts set Trump’s case apart from the cases in which former high-level executives realize that they have inadvertently taken documents.
Several pages of the indictment are devoted to explaining the rules for how secret and sensitive US defense information is classified and must be handled.
From January 2021 until March 15, 2021:
On page 10 of the indictment, we get an image of a bunch of cardboard boxes stacked on a stage at Mar-a-Lago.
A Mastodon reader asked: “Were party events held while these boxes were on the stage?”
Answer: The indictment does not directly answer that question, but someone, presumably someone without security clearance, took this photograph and gave it to the DOJ.
On April 5, 2021, two Trump employees had the following text message exchange:
Employee #2: “Woah!! Ok so potus specifically asked Walt for those boxes to be in the business center because they are his papers.”
(Notice: Trump calls them “his” papers and employees are casually handling these documents.)
Later that day, they had the following text message exchange:
Employee #2: We can definitely make it work if we move his papers into the lake room?
Beautiful Mind Paper Boxes? And yes, the employees discussed moving the boxes into a shower. Presumably the DOJ has these text messages.
“After this text message exchange, some of Trump’s boxes were moved from the business center to a bathroom and shower in TheMar-a-Lago Club’s Lake Room. . . “
On page 12 is an image of boxes stacked in the bathroom. (It’s hard to see here, but Leu left a comment pointing out that you can also see boxes in the shower.)
We are told that the storage room was easily accessible, and we get the detail that “the Storage Room was near the liquor supply closet, linen room, lock shop, and various other rooms.”
(Nothing to see here folks. Just top-secret US documents stored in an unsecured room of a resort not far from the liquor supply closet.)
Also in May of 2021, Trump caused some of his boxes to be brought to his summer residence at The Bedminster Club (which is also not authorized for the storage of classified documents.)
Beginning in May, the National Archives (“NARA) “repeatedly demanded that Trump turn over presidential records that he had kept after his presidency.”
Beginning in June, the NARA “warned Trump through his representatives that if he did not comply, it would refer the matter to the DOJ.”
In July of 2021, we have the first of two occasions in which Trump shared classified information with people unauthorized to have access to it. This happened at Bedminster during an interview with a writer, publisher, and two members of Trump’s staff.
The entire interview was audio recorded with Trump’s permission.
Upon greeting the writer, publisher, and his two staff members, Trump stated, “Look what I found, this was [the Senior Military Official’s] plan of attack, read it and just show . .. it’s interesting.”
(Notice the word “showed.” Apparently Trump is showing a document.)
Later in the interview, Trump engaged in the following exchange:
WRITER: Wow.
TRUMP: We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him. All sorts of stuff– pages long look.
STAFFER: Mm.
TRUMP: Wait a minute, let’s see here.
STAFFER: [Laughter] Yeah.
TRUMP: I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know.
STAFFER: Mm-hm.
TRUMP: Except it is like, highly confidential.
STAFFER: Yeah. [Laughter]
TRUMP: Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this. You attack, and —
* * *
TRUMP: By the way. Isn’t that incredible?
STAFFER: Yeah.
TRUMP: I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he said, “he wanted to attack Country A , and what” . ..
STAFFER: You did.
TRUMP: This was done by the military and given to me. Uh, I think we can probably, right?
STAFFER: I don’t know, we’ll, we’ll have to see. Yeah, we’ll have to try to–
TRUMP: Declassify it.
STAFFER:—Figure out a yeah—
TRUMP: See as president I could have declassified it.
STAFFER: — figure out a — yeah.
TRUMP: See, as president, I could have declassified it.
STAFFER: Yeah [Laughter]
TRUMP: Now I can’t, you know, but it is still a secret.
STAFFER: Yeah [laughter] Now we have a problem.
TRUMP: Isn’t that interesting?
This was a remarkable exchange in which Trump wants to brag about this for a book, but he knows he can’t because the information is classified, but he does anyway. The exchange shows:
-
- Trump showing highly sensitive defense information to people who should not see it.
- Trump knew he shouldn’t be showing it.
- Trump acknowledged that he could have declassified it, but now he can’t. So he knows the procedures and ignored them.
- The audio was recorded with Trump’s knowledge and consent.
- I assume that the DOJ has this audio. (🔥)
I can’t even imagine what Trump’s defense could possibly be. What he seems to be doing is just indiscriminately and stupidly running his mouth, boasting about how important he is/was and his cool documents. He did this not only in front of witnesses but while being recorded!
On December 7, 2021, Nauta found several of Trump’s boxes fallen and their contents spilled onto the floor of the Storage Room, including a document marked SECRET REL TO USA, FVEY.
Nauta took the picture and texted it to another employee. Along with the photograph he snapped, Nauta send this text message: “I opened the door and found this.”
Employee 2 responded: “no oh no, and I’m sorry potus had my phone.”
On page 14, we get an image of how these spilled documents looked, plus an explanation that this marking means that the documents can be released only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
What’s going on with Nauta? Evidently, other employees who handled these documents came clean. When called to the DOJ, they testified honestly, handed over text messages, and therefore had no criminal liability. If you are at work and your boss says, “Move those boxes” and you do, and later the FBI comes and says “you were handling top secret docs” you would not have the necessary mens rea to be prosecuted for a crime.
Nauta (as is explained later) lied to investigators for Trump. For how a person like Nauta can get swept up in this, see my blog post from last week.
He can see that all of the other Mar-a-Lago folks were in there spilling everything they know including the text message he wrote, which puts him in very deep doo-doo because the DOJ can see exactly where he lied. (“Deep doo-doo” is an actual legal term in the field of criminal defense.)
On June 10, it was reported that “Nauta is joining Trump today as he travels to campaign speeches in Georgia and North Carolina…. during the first of which Trump blasted Special Counsel Jack Smith.” (Clever of Trump, right? Keep Nauta close so he doesn’t get the idea to go blab everything to the DOJ in an effort to get himself a better deal.)
Between November 2021 and January 2022, “Nauta and Employee #2, at Trump’s direction, brought boxes from the Storage room to Trump’s residence for Trump to review.” Employee #2 took a photograph of the boxes so Trump could see how many of his boxes were stored in the storage room. (And yes, the DOJ included the photograph.)
In November: Nauta and the employee had a text message conversation about Trump’s wishes regarding the boxes. Nauta replied, “He has one he’s working on in pine hall.”
After a Trump representative was in contact with NARA, Employee #2 texted the representative, “box will be wrenched out of him today, promise!” They discussed getting “new box covers before giving these to them on Monday.”
January 17, 2022: Employee #2 and Nauta gathered 15 boxes from Trump’s residence, loaded the boxes into Nauta’s car, and took them to a commercial truck for delivery to NARA.”
When asked about the process and details, Nauta made “false and misleading statements.” (Those statements are recounted on page 20. The lies are easily debunked through his text message exchanges. Ooops.)
February 9, 2022: Because the boxes returned had so many secret and confidential markings, NARA referred the discovery to the DOJ.
March 30, 2022: The DOJ opened a criminal investigation.
April 26, 2022, a federal grand jury opened an investigation.
May 11, 2022: The grand jury issued a subpoena for any remaining documents with classified markings.
May 22, 2022: Nauta entered the storage room at 3:47 and left 34 minutes later, carrying one of Trump’s boxes.
May 23, 2022, Trump met with Attorney #1 and Attorney #2 at Mar-a-Lago to discuss how to respond to the subpoena. The lawyers told him he needed to search for documents responsive to the subpoena.
He made the following statements, among others, as memorialized by Attorney #1:
- I don’t want anybody looking, I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes.
- Well what if we, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them?
- Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?
- Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents
(Attorney 1 is evidently Corcoran and the “memorialized” refers to the handwritten notes he was compelled to hand over to prosecutors. Notice “among others.” This suggests there are other statements that the DOJ is not disclosing yet.)
(What’s stunning here is how hard Trump is trying to keep these documents.)
Trump also told the following story to the lawyer:
. . . he was great, he did a great job. You know what? He said, he said– that it was him. That he was the one who deleted all of her emails, the 30,000 emails, because they basically dealt with her scheduling and her going to the gym and her having beauty appointments. And he was great. And he, so she didn’t get in any trouble because he said that he was the one who deleted them.
(Doesn’t this sound to you like he was hinting to his lawyer that the lawyer should say he “deleted” or got rid of the documents to get Trump off the hook?)
They then arranged for Lawyer #1 (Corcoran) to search the boxes. Trump delayed a trip to Bedminster to be around when this happened.
Between May 23, 2022 and June 2, 2022, when Lawyer #1 searched, Nauta removed–at Trump’s direction–a total of approximately 64 boxes and brought them to Trump’s residence. The activities are memorialized by a Trump family member who texted Nauta:
Good afternoon Walt, Happy Memorial Day!
I saw you put boxes to Potus room . Just FYI and I will tell him as well: Not sure how many he wants to take on Friday on the plane. We will NOT have a room for them. Plane will be full with luggage.
Thank you!
NAUTA replied:
Good Afternoon Ma’am [SmileyFace Emoji Thank you so much.
I think he wanted to pick from them. I don’t imagine him wanting to take the boxes.
He told me to put them in the room and that he was going to talk to you about them.
(Unless I am misreading something, the idea was that Trump would pick documents to take to Bedminster so they would not be detected in the search. I’d also guess that the family member is Melania.)
June 2, 2022, the day Corcoran was scheduled to search, Trump spoke with Nauta on the phone at 9:29 and spoke for 24 seconds.
(The DOJ obviously obtained the phone records because neither Trump nor Nauta would have willingly shared this information.)
“Neither Trump nor Nauta informed” Trump’s attorney #1 (Corcoran) that boxes had been removed.
When Corcoran arrived to search, Nauta took him to the Storage Room. Corcoran located 38 documents with classified markings. He sealed them up, then met with Trump. Trump asked, “Did you find anything . . . is it bad? Good?”
They discussed what to do with the sealed documents. During that conversation, Trump made a “plucking motion”as memorialized by Trump Attorney 1:
(So he was implying that Corcoran should just cause documents to disappear if they would make Trump look bad. !!!! Just wow. He assumed that someone lied to cover for Hillary Clinton. Calls to mind how Liars and cheaters often assume that everyone lies and cheats.)
That evening, Corcoran contacted the DOJ to say that an agent should come to get the responsive documents. He also had Attorney one of the attorneys sign a waiver even though she had nothing to do with the search. The certification said that a “diligent search” was conducted, and “any and all responsive documents accompany th is certification.”
(LIAR LIAR, Nauta had moved out those boxes before Corcoran could search.)
June 3: Trump told the Justice Department that he was an “open book.”
After June 3: The DOJ obtained surveillance footage showing boxes being moved out before the search.
August 8, 2022: The FBI searched pursuant to a court-authorized warrant. They found lots of classified stuff in the Storage Room and Trump’s office.
These quotations from Trump are included to show that Trump understood the importance of these documents:
- On August 18, 2016, Trump stated, “In my administration going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.”
- September 6, 2016, “Trump stated, We also need to fight this battle by collecting intelligence and then protecting, protecting our classified secrets. We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified.”
- On September 17, 2016, Trump stated, “One of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information.”
- September 19, 2016, Trump stated, “We also need the best protection of classified information.”
- On November 3, 2016, Trump stated, “Service members here in North Carolina have risked their lives to acquire classified intelligence to protect our country.”
February 16, 2017, four years before TRUMP’s disclosures of classified information, Trump said at a press conference:
In other words, Trump himself, while president and running for office declared that the very crimes described in this indictment should be prosecuted.
The Charges
- 18 U.S.C. § 793(e) Willful Retention of National Defense Information (Counts 1 – 31, one count for each document.)
- 18 u.s.c.§ 1512(k) Obstruction of Justice (Trump and Nauta conspired to withhold these documents and mislead others.) (count 32)
- 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(2)(A) 2, Withholding a Document or Record (count 33)
- 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(l) Corruptly Concealing a Document or Record (count 34)
- 18 u.s.c. § 1519, 2 Concealing a document in a Federal Investigation (count 35)
- 18 U.S.C. § 1001 (a)(l): Scheme to conceal (count 36)
- 18U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2) False Statements and Representations (Count 37.)
PART II: will be ready in the next day or two.
In honor of graduation weekend, here was JJ 8 years ago graduating from Dog School. They didn’t have to teach him to be an alert and ferocious guard dog. He learned that on his own.
PLEASE unbundle this for all us non-legal minds out here; it’s being widely used
as maga’s central alibi: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/06/trump_did_not_violate_the_law_because_he_could_not_violate_the_law.html
Thank you!
I’m not a lawyer either, but that article you linked to has a glaring error in the first few sentences: “because he was president when he took possession of the documents, Trump cannot be guilty of the crimes with which he’s charged.”
Trump was no longer President of the US at noon Jan 20, 2021 when President Biden assumed office.
So you can take it from there:
Trump no longer had any legal claims on what become property of the U.S. Government, including the government documents Trump directed to be removed from the WH.
Any government documents that left the WH prior to 1/20/21 similarly became property of the US Government at noon 1/20/21.
Trump did not return government property. Trump hid government property from investigators. Trump lied to authorities about returning all governement property despite a legal subpoena in 2022 to return all property.
The FBI retrieved U.S. government property, including documents that were identified as National Defence Information (NDI) in a properly predicated criminal search warrant of Mar-a-Lago in 8/2022.
NDI does not have to be classified to qualify as NDI, so any “I declassified everything with my mind” does not protect Trump from violations of the Espionnage Act.
Finally, Trump was indicted in Florida by a grand jury of his (Floridian) peers, so this is not Biden or Libs trying to take out Trump for their own political purposes. Etc. Etc.
The indictment is a road map of the laws that will be applied to Trump and Nauta.
His comments about, “Wouldn’t it be better we just told them we didn’t have anything,” etc, sounds awfully like when he told Mike Pence, “But wouldn’t it be really cool if you could change the votes?” Ridiculous and still terrifying that someone with the impulse control of a toddler had access to the nuclear codes.
Congratulations to you and your son! And thanks for this write-up; found it very informative.
Would love your take on the following article and the mischief that Cannon could do and what, if anything, prosecutors could do to mitigate any of what is suggested here.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-indictment-plan-judge-aileen-cannon
Hoping the prosecution uses Reality Winner as a witness…
Trump: such a buffoon!
Looking forward to PART II
Any chance the trial could be scheduled sooner than next year? What happens if he is convicted, then elected while awaiting sentencing and/or the start of his potential incarceration?
Does 21 days mean:
a) 21 days until the DOJ would be ready for a trial to begin? Or,
B) the trial itself will take about 21 days?
Hi Teri. Reading your blog and posts are my sips of lucidity. Thank you again. And again.
Hoping when this trial comes up:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/11/john-eastman-disbarment-trial-trump-00101407
you will share your thoughts with us.
Ollie sends woofs to JJ.
> (Nothing to see here folks. Just top-secret US documents stored in an unsecured room of a resort not far from the liquor supply closet.)
Oh, good. Then it isn’t a resort that is high on our adversaries’ high value target list. Were it so, it’d be more than just “a resort.” Comforting.
As many, many others have also said, “Why hasn’t Bedminster been searched?”
> (“Deep doo-doo” is an actual legal term in the field of criminal defense.)
The military cleans that up with “deep kimchi”
18 U.S.C. § 793(h) is also a fun read, since it references 18 U.S.C. § 793(e):
> (h) (1) Any person convicted of a violation of this section shall forfeit to the United States, irrespective of any provision of State law, any property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds the person obtained, directly or indirectly, from any foreign government, or any faction or party or military or naval force within a foreign country, whether recognized or unrecognized by the United States, as the result of such violation. For the purposes of this subsection, the term “State” includes a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, and any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States.
I think that Kushner’s $2,000,000,000 came, in part, from MBS being happy about the intel given him by tRUmp. That should count.
Congratulations to your son and your family (including you of course) – on such an auspicious occasion- I appreciate you taking the time during such special event to share your never disappointing knowledge ❤️
If Nauta takes a plea deal and flips (and there should be plenty of incentive for him to do so, if his lawyer will act in Nauta’s best interest rather than Trump’s), he will be asked whether Trump or others encouraged him to lie and cover up his actions. His answers to those questions might lead to additional counts against Trump for obstruction of justice.
Congratulations on your son’s graduation.
Great ‘over the cliff notes’ and I’m looking forward to Part II.
So, I wonder if the DOJ subpoenaed that employee’s phone. The one who said on Dec 7, 2021
“potus had my phone…”
why would Not-POTUS have his employee’s phone? Was he communicating with someone and he didn’t want there to be proof of the communication in HIS OWN phone logs…? We know from people who have worked for him, that he does this to evade detection of his criminal activity.
I noticed that too and wondered if employee could give access to phone records…
Congrats to your son and to you and your family! Thanks for taking time out from celebrating to inform us of your knowledgable and concise thoughts on the indictment. Q1: was the grand jury unanimous in handing down the indictment? Q2: is it true that just one jurist voting “not guilty” in the criminal trial will get him off? Q3: do you feel that Nauta, like Cohen, will turn against him for a lighter sentence? Even with such a detailed indictment, presumably backed by even more damning evidence, is the outcome in this case still precarious, given our justice system’s built-in advantages meant to ensure that a guilty party can go free rather than an innocent party be wrongly convicted (not that it always works this way, particularly for those lacking power and money)? Many thanks!
I have several thoughts. First I too thought it noteworthy that the Indictment calls the defendant TRUMP—not even the honorific former President—just plain ole criminal trump!
Second the Indictment describes the 5/23 meeting with trump about the subpoena as being between atty 1 & 2. Does this mean there’s a second witness (albeit an attorney whose atty-client protection would need to be, if not already, pierced) to trump’s intent to obstruct the subpoena?
Third the Indictment says that a THIRD attorney, whom we know is Bobb, agreed to sign off on the flawed subpoena search after she qualified it.
Fourth the Indictment suggests there’s evidence that trump boxes were taken to Bedminster and clearly states that while at Bedminster trump showed national security docs to people not cleared to see them. I read that after the taped interview became known, the prosecutor subpoenaed the Iran invasion plan doc, but trump’s attorneys said no such doc was “in his possession.” Why isn’t all this probable cause to get a search warrant for Bedminster?
Both of the links in your email lead to Part 1.
I wanted to thank you for the valuable public service you’re providing with your weekly commentary. Appreciate it!
That’s because I am still writing Part II. (I should have been clearer, sorry)
Teri, congratulations to your son!!
So appreciate your taking the time in the midst of your celebration to break the indictment down for us! Interesting how everyone in his world is still referring to him as potus
I so enjoy reading you blog! Your straight forward, clear explanations really help to understand the legal issues surrounding the past administration. Who’d have ever thought 1 person or 1 party could create such daily chaos. Thank you for bringing clarity & calm to their gaslighting.
Hi Teri! Well done and hopefully in part two you will shed light on the status of Corceron as TFG’s attorney at the time of gathering notes and interaction. Does it suggest attorney/client privilege?
Congratulations to your son, and to you for helping him to achieve that great goal.
I suppose I should be relieved that the charges do reflect the crimes committed and, if the jury follows the law, convictions will follow. I was almost expecting the evidence would also point to TFG and other family members actually using the info for monetary gain, hence leading to espionage charges. Instead it looks like he only wanted the keepsakes for future bragging and was willing to lie as usual because he always gets away with it. I’ve known and worked for egomaniacs before, but he takes the cake.
Obviously, for me anyway, these acts would prove that he should never again be anywhere near our nation’s secrets thus disqualifying him to be potus again. But it will take congress to act to stop him trying, I think. There are still too many people that will agree that he could shoot someone in public and still not lose a vote.
Every time I see the bathroom picture I think “Trump Presidential Library”
I hope it winds up as a wing of an FBI building.
Thank you, Teri.
To speak the comment on Trumps mental health, he is without a doubt, character disordered and dangerous. I’m assuming he would never meet a legal standard of insanity, nor would he display such “weakness.” I expect a presentation in court which looks like rage and he will likely continue to work against his best interests. What a deep doo doo show.
Congratulations to your son and thank you for your lucid breakdown of this incredibly complicated case.
Terri, thank you so much and congrats to your son for his graduation!
Questions for you: Considering at Trump’s first rally/speech after the indictment, he’s already (albeit subtly) sounding the alarm for violence, will he be able to run amok, spouting his lies and promoting resistance? Will the Judge put a damper on him like Bragg did for the first Indictment? Would that come from Jack Smith or Judge Cannon? Shouldn’t she recuse herself? Thank you for your commitment to Democracy and Justice. ❤️
Wondering if Jack Smith’s team was able to ascertain why the box lid replacement idea came up.
From November, 2021: They discussed getting “new box covers before giving these to them on Monday.”
Was there something potentially incriminating written on the lids?
I am betting that the box covers had sequence numbers written on them, eg “7 of 64”.
Mazel Tov on the graduation! Thank you for all you do to educate us – we are truly appreciative!
Is it possible Aileen Cannon could just grant a defense motion to dismiss ?
Congratulations to your son.
Your discussions of the legal issues are always illuminating and helpful. Am looking forward to your Part 2.
For people who did not read the timeline of the box moving, it would be important to stress that Trump Attorney 1 did not search the Storage Room at MAL until June 2, 2022 in the late afternoon. The way your post is worded, some people might mistakenly think that the Trump Attorney 1 searched between May 23, 2022 and June 2, 2022. Of the 64 boxes removed from the Storage Room, at Trump’s direction, to Trump’s MAL residence, only approximately 30 boxes (the same boxes or different ones?) were placed back in the Storage Room before Trump Attorney 1 did his review of the Storage Room.
I noticed that not all the boxes that were initially in the White and Gold ballroom are accounted for in the indictment. “Some” were moved to the business office. And not all the boxes in the business office are accounted for in the indictment either.
Only “some” were moved to the Lake Room (bathroom/shower).
Still curious why Corcoran would have another attorney (Habba) sign off on the search instead of himself, given that he was the one to do the search. Is it Corcoran’s attempt to avoid committing a crime/making a false representation?
As his conversation with Trump about what he found from his search in the Storage Room met the crime-fraud exception, I don’t know how Corcoran could argue getting Habba to sign was not another crime-fraud excepted act.
FYI, there are ~30 boxes in the bathroom outside the shower (5 stacks of 6 + 1 stack of 5 or 6 + 2 more; 31 or 32 to be more exact), at least another 18 in the shower I would think.
Thank you Teri!
Hope has replaced horror.
Jack Smith is the man we need and we are lucky to have him.
Donald Trump is no American and it’s all in the evidence.
It will be a rough ride but I do believe our country will recover.
Congratulations on your son’s graduation.
Good Luck to him!~!
I guess Nuata has a problem in that his lawyer is a Trumper. He’s hardly going to encourage him to spill the beans and implicate Trump. I almost feel sorry for him. Must be a very tricky position to be in and I guess he’s hardly in a position to be able to afford his own lawyer and in the process lose his job.
I have no more sympathy for Nauta than I do/did for Cohen, Guiliani, Meadows, et al. Hutchinson (an observer, not a co-conspirator) found herself in the same catch22 with Trump lawyers acting on HIS behalf in representing and advising her, rather than her own behalf. She did the right thing in severing ties with him and telling the J6C the truth. Hopefully, a good lawyer will convince Nauta to make the same decision as did Cohen and Hutchinson, for his own benefit, and that of our country.
I recall reading media reports that Corcoran said the Boris Epshtyn (sp?) had somehow hindered his searches, yet that name never shows up in the indictment. Just wondering why.
Surely Jack Smith knew Aileen Cannon might be the judge, and has a contingency plan? And Congratulations!
What about the Presidential Records Act? How does that stand up as a defense?
Emptywheel has some thoughts on that:
The Mar-a-Lago Indictment Is a Tactical Nuke:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/06/10/the-mar-a-lago-indictment-is-a-love-bunny/
Which brings me to one other detail that I can’t get out of my head, given the uncharged examples of Trump disseminating classified information at Bedminster and the two instances when classified documents went to New Jersey never to be seen again.
blockquote
One other reason Jack Smith gave to unseal the indictment was so he could share it to, among other entities, “sealed entities” and the grand jury in DC.
end blockquote
To the United States District Court of the District of Columbia, under seal, in relation to grand jury and sealed matters in that jurisdiction.
Thank you Teri! Great explanation. I shouldn’t be, yet I’m still shocked Trump thought he could get away with this. I guess when you’ve gotten away with as much as he has for as long as he has, and you have mob ties, you think you’re invincible.
This is so outrageous I’m at a loss for words.
I’m thinking Trump should plead insanity. There seems to be a least some evidence that he has some sort of mental illness. Otherwise he’s just a stupid treasonous criminal.
Look at that photo! It’s bathroom reading material!
He deserves 10 years for that bathroom alone.
Congratulations to you and to your son. It’s quite the accomplishment for you both.
Plus
I’ve been waiting for your analysis and you didn’t disappoint. Thank you so much for this. It was delicious.
One tangential point, HRC had the same authority as all FedGov ee’s to delete her non-business emails. I’m pretty sure I’m correct on that, but it’s almost never pointed out in news items. My parents both worked in the Treasury Dept and they’ve always said this whenever those emails come up.
Anyway, Trump confirms that these were personal emails, at least as far as he knew. FWIW
Congratulations on your son’s graduation!
Thank you for laying this out so beautifully and clearly. I just have one question (not channeling Columbo, I promise 🙂 ) I keep seeing people on the internet asking why Bedminster hasn’t been searched, and them being told there’s no probable cause. From what Nauta’s text messages show, there’s plenty of probable cause. Is it true Bedminster still hasn’t been searched, or could it have been and Trump, improbably, didn’t scream about it happening?
I have the same question. I admit I’m one of the ones who also can’t let go of the idea that there’s something fishy about Ivanka Trump’s death & particularly her funeral, too.
Secret Service has no obligation to report on matters that are illegal and harmful to our Country? They watched the run up to & J6 and then continued for 18 months to just let him move boxes around until they were given a subpoena? Fed up.
P.S. Congratulations to you & son!
Congratulations on your son’s graduation. You and Andy must be looking forward to his upcoming college years.
Thank you for this rundown. I look forward to Part II.
The crimes laid out in the indictment are so much worse than I expected, and the damage that he has done to our national defense is astounding. It’s going to take a very long time to repair and rebuild that. I know that things will get very fraught going forward, but the DOJ is doing this right. I just really hope that the jury gets it right. How much of a risk is it that Cannon is the presiding judge, at least for now? I know she got slammed for her duplicitous actions during the whole Special Master fiasco, but do you think she is actually capable of following the law here? Is there any chance that additional charges might be filed with respect to the espionage case either in DC or in whichever district covers Bedminster since it looks like there was criminal activity in both of those places?
I was reading an interesting WaPo article about the bind this all puts President Biden in. He’s not directing any of this, the DOJ is and is following the law as it should, but do you have any thoughts on how Biden will navigate these waters through the campaign? The press surely won’t do him any favors by constantly asking about the trials as they move forward.
Do you think that Trump has poisoned the well enough that any plea bargain to reduce or dismiss charges will be off the table on this case?
After seeing this, I can only imagine how devastating the J6 indictment(s) against Trump are going to be when we get there. And of course Georgia, though that will be at the state, not federal level.
So let’s see, that means that at a minimum, Trump will face criminal charges in NY and GA at the state level, and at least two federal trials, maybe more. He’s certainly the most prolific (and stupid) criminal former president in our history, and while no verdict is guaranteed, the odds are certainly in favor of him being convicted on some number of counts across all of these cases.
Congrats to your son on his graduation.
Also – the bathroom picture. There are MORE boxes behind that Dollar Store shower curtain. You can see them in the upper right.
Hi, thank you. Question: that part of Hillary’s email and how her employee was “great” to say he deleted the emails… it definitely does imply he wanted someone to do that for him…I was thinking that in his mind Nauta would have been the perfect person for him to go to and ask to do that for him. My bet is, that’s exactly what he will try to do if he hasn’t already. Nauta is his perfect fall guy.
Question 2: is it legal for DOJ to secretly flip someone and send him back into TFknG’s inner circle to get more evidence? A girl can hope can’t she?
Happy Graduation to your son, and hope all of your family makes some great memories celebrating that special occasion!
Thanks for taking time to highlight key parts of the indictment for us. Much appreciated.
I looked at this on your website before you sent out email, so just fyi, you might want to define NARA….otherwise, thanks so much. congrats to your son, he is lucky to have you