Justice Makes Its Move, Finally

The long-awaited indictment of President Trump for mishandling classified materials has landed, and it reads like a Coen brothers’ script

At last, just as this newsletter predicted would happen soon, the Department of Justice yesterday unsealed its indictment of former President Donald J. Trump on a slew of serious charges related to his mishandling of classified materials after Trump left the Oval Office. The 49-page indictment, which details many strange goings-on in Trumpworld, merits a close read but several key elements jump out.

The former president is being indicted on 37 felonies relating to his illegal retention of classified materials at Mar-a-Lago right until the FBI seized them in their August 8, 2022, raid on the Trump property. That raid took possession of 102 documents marked classified: 17 TOP SECRET, 54 SECRET, and 31 CONFIDENTIAL. Many of those documents were highly sensitive and included various handling caveats (more on that later).

Specifically, the former president is being charged with:

31 counts of Willful Retention of National Defense Information, a violation of U.S. Code Title 18, Section 793(e): each of these counts can be punished by a maximum of 25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

One count of Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice, a violation of U.S. Code Title 18, Section 1512(k), with Trump’s “Diet Coke valet” Walt Nauta named as co-defendant: punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

One count of Withholding a Document or Record, a violation of U.S. Code Title 18, Sections 151(b)(2)(A) and 2, with Nauta as co-defendant: punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

One count of Corruptly Concealing a Document or Record, a violation of U.S. Code Title 18, Sections 1512(c) (1 and 2), with Nauta as co-defendant: punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

One count of Concealing a Document in a Federal Investigation, a violation of U.S. Code Title 18, Sections 1519 and 2, with Nauta as co-defendant: punishable by a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

One count of Scheme to Conceal, a violation of U.S. Code Title 18, Sections 1001(a) (1 and 2), with Nauta as co-defendant: punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

One count of False Statements and Representations, a violation of U.S. Code Title 18, Sections 1001(a) (2 and 2): punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

To state the obvious, if Trump (who turns 77 in a couple days) is convicted on any of those 37 counts, he stands a real risk of “dying in jail” (per my most famous tweet). The gravity of these charges is difficult to overstate, and the details numb the mind. Of the 31 classified documents which Trump is specifically charged with refusing to hand back to the government, 21 possess severely restricted handling caveats, indicating they are derived from sensitive sources (such as compartmented SIGINT, HUMINT, IMINT, etc.). Ten of these handling caveats are so sensitive that the codenames of the caveats themselves are redacted!