Explainer | Former U.S. president Donald Trump has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents. Here’s what you need to know

Former U.S. president Donald Trump says he has been indicted on charges related to the mishandling of classified documents in his Florida estate.

The U.S. Justice Department has yet to publicly confirm the indictment, but Trump has said he is set to be in court in Miami on Tuesday.

Here’s what you need to know:

What is he accused of?

Trump has been charged with seven counts related to the mishandling of classified documents, said two people familiar with the matter but are not authorized to speak publicly, to the Associated Press. The charges are sealed and details remain unclear.

Prosecutors have accused Trump of mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, including accusations he took with him around 300 classified documents from the White House to his Florida home.

These include the 100 or so documents seized by FBI agents when they raided his home last August, during which time the agents discovered more than 10,000 other government documents with no classification marked.

Trump’s alleged actions could be charged under the U.S. Espionage Act; for example, one part of the act — 18 U.S. Code § 793 — prohibits the willing possession of documents related to national defence by people unauthorized to handle them. The offence carries a maximum ten-year prison sentence.

Notably, the charge doesn’t require the document-holder to share the information with a hostile government or other parties. Previous federal documents also noted Trump was being investigated for the concealment, mutilation or removal of records and for destroying, altering or falsifying documents in a federal investigation.

Background

Trump’s document saga began back in February of 2022, when the National Archives and Records Administration first requested the Justice Department to investigate the former president after Trump belatedly returned 15 boxes of documents — which included classified information — kept at his Florida estate.

In August, Trump announced FBI agents had conducted an “unannounced raid” on his home, asserting that they’d broken into a safe. Days later, a federal judge unsealed the warrant behind the move, revealing the agents had confiscated classified information during their search. The warrant continued that agents were investigating multiple potential violations of federal law, including the espionage act.

Trump said the documents were “all declassified” and that he’d have turned them over to federal agents if asked. For their part, the federal government said they’d made several requests for him to return the files.

Later that month, the DOJ released a heavily-redacted affidavit detailing the haphazard storage and security of the classified documents, some of which were mixed with magazines and other items. The document continued that there were “a significant number of civilian witnesses” involved in the probe.

Later in September, the FBI revealed in a court filing that it recovered 33 boxes and containers in their August raid, including 48 empty folders labelled as classified. In the end, according to CNN, the FBI recovered 31 “confidential” documents (the lowest level of classification), 54 “secret” documents (middle level of classification) and 18 “top secret” documents (the highest level of classification) during their August search.

While all this was going on, Trump sued the DOJ in late August, in an attempt to block them from viewing the classified documents until a third-party “special master” could ensure the files weren’t improperly accessed. His request was granted in September, before a unanimous federal appeals court reversed the decision later in December — allowing the DOJ to access all documents seized in the search.

What else do we know about the classified documents?

Prosecutors have said that Trump took around 300 classified documents after leaving the White House.

Documents included those labelled confidential, secret and top secret — the highest classification. While also including those labelled “sensitive compartmented information,” a special category designed to protect the nation’s most important secrets.

The information must be stored and used in a “Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility” which has specific construction requirements.

The Justice Department has said there was no space secure in Mar-a-Lago for sensitive documents.

How are people responding?

SHARE: