Federal indictment in Trump classified documents case unsealed

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - A federal indictment against former President Donald Trump was unsealed in court Friday in what marks a historic first for an ex-commander-in-chief to face federal charges.

Trump faces 37 charges, including 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, most of which are tied to documents that were seized when the FBI executed a search warrant at the ex-president's Mar-a-Lago estate on Aug. 8. Eleven of those charges relate to documents that were handed over to FBI investigators by Trump's attorney in June.

Trump faces an additional count of conspiracy to obstruct justice alongside Waltine Nauta, a military valet to Trump during his time in the White House who went on to serve as a personal aide after he left office in January 2021.

The men are also charged with withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, and carrying out a scheme to conceal.

Trump and Nauta are separately each charged with one count of making false statements to federal investigators.