As Details Of The 37 Federal Crimes Trump Faces Are Revealed, Two Members Of Congress Call For "War"

If convicted on all 37 counts, Trump would face a maximum of 420 years in prison.

tl;dr: The 49-page unsealed indictment makes it clear that the Demented Orange Motherfucker is bigly fucked.

Donald Trump faces 37 separate charges relating to seven federal laws, including 31 violations of the Espionage Act. Walt Nauta, his Diet Coke valet, faces six charges.

Donald Trump – Penalty Sheet

Counts #: 1-31
Willful Retention of National Defense Information, 18 U.S.C. § 793(e)
* Max. Term of Imprisonment: 10 years
* Mandatory Min. Term of Imprisonment (if applicable): N/A
* Max. Supervised Release: 3 years
* Max. Fine: $250,000

Count #: 32
Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice, 18 U.S.C. § 1512(k)
* Max. Term of Imprisonment: 20 years
* Mandatory Min. Term of Imprisonment (if applicable): N/A
* Max. Supervised Release: 3 years
* Max. Fine: $250,000

Count #: 33
Withholding a Document or Record, 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(2)(A)
* Max. Term of Imprisonment: 20 years
* Mandatory Min. Term of Imprisonment (if applicable): N/A
* Max. Supervised Release: 3 years
* Max. Fine: $250,000

Count #: 34
Corruptly Concealing a Document or Record, 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(1)
* Max. Term of Imprisonment: 20 years
* Mandatory Min. Term of Imprisonment (if applicable): N/A
* Max. Supervised Release: 3 years
* Max. Fine: $250,000

Count #: 35
Concealing a Document in a Federal Investigation, 18 U.S.C. § 1519
* Max. Term of Imprisonment: 20 years
* Mandatory Min. Term of Imprisonment (if applicable): N/A
* Max. Supervised Release: 3 years
* Max. Fine: $250,000

Count #: 36
Scheme to Conceal, 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(1)
* Max. Term of Imprisonment: 5 years
* Mandatory Min. Term of Imprisonment (if applicable): N/A
* Max. Supervised Release: 3 years
* Max. Fine: $250,000

Count #: 37
False Statements and Representations, 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2)
* Max. Term of Imprisonment: 5 years
* Mandatory Min. Term of Imprisonment (if applicable): N/A
* Max. Supervised Release: 3 years
* Max. Fine: $250,000

Trump’s revolving door of lawyers keep on spinning. A few hours after the announcement that Trump would be indicted by the US Department of Justice, two of Trump’s attornets — including his lead counsel, good old Mr. Trusty, who led the legal team for months — quit the case and ran for the hills. It is not known why.

Two US Congressmen — Biggs and Higgins — Call For Civil War

The calls for violence in support of Trump have already gone out. Two of those calls are from Congressmen Andy Biggs and Clay Higgins.

Biggs, one of four men who planned the Capitol insurrection stated: “We have now reached a war phase.”

After mentioning Trump’s court appearance, Higgins said: “This is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. Hold. rPOTUS has this. Buckle up. 1/50K know your bridges. Rock steady calm. That is all.”

Jeff Sharlet, the author of The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War, called Higgins message “deep[ly] scary”, tweeting: “1/50 k refers to military scale maps & publicly available US Geological Survey maps of areas mostly surrounding military installations. This isn’t a metaphor. This isn’t slow civil war. This is a congressman calling for the real thing.”

The letter “r” in front of POTUS in Higgins’s tweet is a code that Trump is the “real” legitimate president of the United States.

Trump has called for his cult members to “rally” outside the Miami courthouse next Tuesday. (Sadly, more than 1,000 MAGAs who were arrested for participating in a pro-Trump seditious insurrection will not attend.) Trump also trothed out to his heavily-armed mob the full name of Jack Smith’s wife. The Proud Boys have also put out the word to come to Miami next week. I read that a third group also called for action.

Indictment Says Trump Lied, Schemed To Keep Highly Classified Secrets
Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, Perry Stein and Jacqueline Alemany, Washington Post, June 9, 2023

Donald Trump stashed sensitive intelligence secrets in a bathroom, his bedroom and a ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, according to a scathing 49-page indictment unsealed Friday against him and a loyal servant who is accused of lying to cover up his boss’s alleged crimes.

The grand jury indictment tells a story of hubris and hypocrisy, describing a wealthy former president living among neck-high stacks of boxes with classified documents scattered inside them, sometimes literally spilling out of their containers. In the prosecutors’ telling, neither Trump nor any of his aides or lawyers appeared bothered by the sprawl of sensitive papers until government agents came calling. . . .

“Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” Trump allegedly asked when his lawyers told him in May 2022 that they had to comply with a grand jury subpoena seeking the return of any documents marked classified. In that same conversation, he praised a lawyer for Hillary Clinton for what he claimed was the act of deleting 30,000 of her emails when she was in government. . . .

Trump faces 37 separate counts, 31 of them for alleged willful retention of national defense information. Each of those 31 counts represents a different classified document he allegedly withheld — 21 that were discovered when the FBI searched the property last August, and 10 that were turned over to the FBI in a sealed envelope two months earlier.

Trump was not charged with a crime for every secret document he allegedly possessed . . . He was not charged with mishandling any of the classified documents that he returned to the National Archives and Records Administration in early 2022 — a telling sign that if he had turned over what authorities had sought, the matter might never have been a criminal case.

Now, if convicted, Trump potentially faces decades in federal prison. . . .

Trump, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, preempted the unsealing of the indictment by announcing it himself Thursday night. He attacked Smith on social media Friday, calling him a “deranged ‘psycho’ that shouldn’t be involved in any case having to do with ‘Justice.’”

Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor, struck a far more sober tone, telling reporters, “We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone.”

The Stupidest Crimes Imaginable
David A. Graham, The Atlantic, June 9, 2023

We knew it would be bad. Even so, it’s bracing just how bad the evidence laid out by the Justice Department against Donald Trump is.

The indictment against Trump [and Walt Nauta] lays out the federal case against the former president in vivid, shocking, and sometimes even wry detail. . . . [T]he evidence included shows why the case against Trump is so disturbing, and why it will be tough for him to defend. And the crimes it details are among the stupidest imaginable.

In particular, Special Counsel Jack Smith alleges a few key points. First, that Trump handled the classified material exceptionally sloppily and haphazardly, including stashing documents in a shower, a bedroom, and—as depicted in a striking photo—onstage in a ballroom that frequently held events. Second, that Trump was personally involved in discussions about the documents, and in directing their repeated relocation. Third, that Trump was well aware of both the laws around classified documents and the fact that these particular documents were not declassified. Fourth, that Trump was personally involved in schemes to hide the documents not only from the federal government but even from his own attorneys. The indictment carefully lays out its case with pictures, texts, and surveillance footage.

In sum, the indictment depicts a man who knew that what he was doing was wrong, and went to great lengths to cover it up. Trump knew exactly how bad it would be if the documents were found, and wanted them destroyed or hidden. His fears, as manifested in his indictment, were well founded. . . .

Experts often lament excessive classification, which results in material that’s not really sensitive being branded secret. But that’s not what Trump is alleged to have taken:

The classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding 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 a foreign attack. 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.

And Smith establishes that Trump was familiar with the rules around the material. He quotes repeated comments Trump made during the 2016 campaign, when he was assailing his opponent Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information, about the importance of such laws. . . .

The indictment also details the many opportunities the government offered Trump to return the documents, and alleges that he not only refused but tried several ruses to hide them. . . .

By now, most people around Trump know better than to trust him. . . . Nauta was not so savvy. When Trump asked him to move the documents around, he did it without question. He also lied to federal investigators . . . Nauta became one of the last people to realize that personal loyalty to Trump tends to lead to personal ruin.

The Documents Trump Hoarded Are Even More Sensitive Than We Thought
Fred Kaplan, Slate, June 9, 2023

Former President Donald Trump’s indictment, which was unsealed Friday afternoon, is even more shocking than his lawyers suggested in advance. It charges him with seven separate crimes, including 31 counts of “willful retention of national defense information” at his Mar-a-Lago compound, several counts of withholding or “corruptly concealing” public documents, and a few of lying to federal investigators . . .

According to the indictment, one document dealt with an intelligence briefing about the nuclear capabilities of foreign countries. Others dealt with U.S. and allied military capabilities as well as their vulnerabilities to foreign military attacks. Some dealt with military operations. And a lot of them were classified at a very high level. . . .

[S]ome of these documents—as an official familiar with them told the Washington Post at the time—ranked “among the most sensitive secrets we hold.” . . . The court-ordered search . . . on Aug. 8 [2022], retrieved more than 300 classified documents.

In other words, this is not a case of a few sheets of paper marked “secret” getting shuffled in with personal effects . . . The indictment quotes tape recordings of conversations proving that Trump knew he had classified documents—he’s showing them to a visitor during the conversation—and that he had no business having them.

The indictment also claims, with photographic evidence, that these boxes were stored, for several months, in places at Mar-a-Lago that were completely accessible to guests—including a ballroom stage, a public bathroom, and a storage room that could be “reached from multiple outside entrances,” including one near a swimming pool. . . .

It is worth recalling that, during the 2016 campaign, Trump railed against Clinton’s carelessness with secrets. It galvanized the war cry at that year’s Republican National Convention: “Lock her up!” It also drove him, early on in his presidency, to upgrade at least one law against improper handling of secret information from misdemeanor to felony—karma indeed!

If Trump is found guilty on all counts, he could be imprisoned for up to 100 years and fined $1.75 million.

The Most Damning Part Of The Trump Indictment
Mark Joseph Stern, Slate, June 9, 2023

The federal indictment of Donald Trump recounts, in damning detail, the story of a shocking and unprecedented crime: special counsel Jack Smith alleges that the former president willfully retained classified national security documents after leaving office, storing them in an insecure location at Mar-a-Lago, and showing them off to members of the public. But the indictment is equally focused on the cover-up that occurred after the Justice Department caught wind of this initial crime. . . .

This blundering plot constituted a criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice, forming the basis of six more felony charges for Trump. Four of these charges carry a 20-year maximum sentence, ten years longer than the maximum sentence for unlawfully retaining national security documents. The charges, in other words, are just as serious, if not more so, than the allegations at the heart of the indictment. . . .

Federal law does not look kindly upon criminal conspiracies to obstruct an investigation into the unlawful concealment of top secret national security documents. These papers, after all, included highly classified information about other countries’ nuclear programs and military activities; details about the United States’ own nuclear weaponry; information about potential “retaliation in response to a foreign attack”; revelations about the United States’ own military vulnerabilities; and much more. Trump allegedly concocted a weeks-long plot to ensure that he could keep all these documents in his personal possession. That now translates into extraordinarily serious federal charges. . . .

Just how serious? . . . A majority of these crimes carry a 20-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine. Each is a felony offense.

The former president is in grave legal jeopardy. These are major crimes that carry life-ruining penalties.

The Legal Dominoes Finally Start To Fall Against Trump
Heather Digby Parton, Salon, June 9, 2023

Another day, another Donald Trump indictment.

In April, the former president and current candidate for president was indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Last month, he was found guilty in a civil court of sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. And last night, as expected, he was indicted on federal charges pertaining to the collection of classified documents he refused to give back to the government after departing the White House. . . .

Trump is still facing a huge civil case in New York over his shady business dealings and he's under criminal investigations in both state and federal jurisdictions regarding his attempted coup in 2020. . . .

Trump has acted in inexplicably suspicious and self-defeating ways since he first ran for president in 2016. From calling on Russia to hack his rival’s emails to his strange affinity for the worst dictators on the planet to his pathological lying about everything, Donald Trump has acted in ways that only cult members could excuse as normal.

This Mar-a-Lago case is especially vexing. When he decided to tell the government to go pound sand, he was not some naif who . . . didn’t know the rules. . . . [He] knew very well that he was not supposed to keep classified documents at his beach club. . . . [N]obody normal would behave this way. . . .

[Republicans] were out in force on Thursday night hysterically defending Trump and proclaiming the end of the Republic. It’s really rich to watch a group of people who screeched “lock her up” on repeat for four long years now clutch their pearls over the inhumanity of holding this man accountable for defying the rule of law and claiming that he declassified every document in his possession just by thinking about it. . . .

Trump's greatest asset, perversely, is his bottomless talent for scandal, corruption and crime which inevitably motivates the Republicans to circle the wagons around him. Someday, maybe they'll figure out that they'd all be better off if they just let him face the consequences.

On Friday, Trump’s Very Very Large A-Brain decided to post incriminating evidence against him just in case Jack Smith had overlooked this photograph.

Why Are The 31 Documents Listed In The Trump Indictment So Sensitive?
Washington Post, June 9, 2023

Trump was not charged with a crime for every secret document that the FBI retrieved last year. Instead, the 49-page indictment homes in on a list of 31 documents that the former president kept in his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida without authorization. For each document, Trump is being charged with one count of willful retention of national defense information.

Most of the documents involved were marked as “SECRET” or “TOP SECRET” — two of the three levels of security clearances. Many were tagged with markings such as “NOFORN,” meaning they cannot be released to foreign nationals; “ORCON,” which, according to the State Department, means the information “may not be disseminated outside of the recipient Department without prior approval”; and “SI,” or special intelligence.

Other documents are described as being sensitive because they should be shared only with “FVEY,” or those part of the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Some are marked as “TK,” short for “target keyhole,” referring to intelligence gathered by an overhead collection system like a satellite. (For a guide to other acronyms, see this piece from September by our colleague Philip Bump.)

Trump Left The Justice Dept. No Choice
New York Times Editorial Board, June 9, 2023

It is hard to overstate the gravity of the criminal indictment issued against Donald Trump late Thursday by a federal grand jury. . . . It is the first time a former leader of the executive branch has been charged with obstructing the very agencies he led, and the first time a former commander in chief has been charged with endangering national security by violating the Espionage Act.

The indictment, unsealed on Friday, accuses Mr. Trump of 37 crimes. The majority of them — 31 of the counts — are for willful retention of national defense information, each a violation of the Espionage Act. There is one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice . . . The other charges involve withholding documents, corruptly concealing documents and making false statements to law enforcement authorities.

The potential prison sentences for Mr. Trump add up to as much as 420 years, even though conviction almost never results in the maximum sentence. But this indictment confronts the country with the harrowing prospect of a former president facing years behind bars, even as he runs to regain the White House.

“You’re Going To Prison, Traitor”: Experts Say Indictment Shows Trump Lawyers “In Over Their Heads”
Igor Derysh, Salon, June 9, 2023

[L]egal experts think the evidence may be too much for his legal team to overcome. . . .

“I haven’t heard anything substantive that makes me really think that this legal team gets what it’s facing,” national security attorney Bradley Moss told MSNBC.

“You would think a former president, especially one with Donald Trump’s kind of money, you’d be expecting top notch A-list, best-of-the-best criminal defense lawyers, you’d be expecting constitutional scholars, national security experts. I’m just not seeing it,” Moss said. . . . “They are completely in over their head, and I think if you’re Donald Trump tonight, you’re realizing I got more or less a D-list legal team . . .”

CNN's Paula Reid noted . . . “[H]e has had a little bit of difficulty retaining lawyers. There are a lot of law firms who won’t take him on. They’re worried their bills won’t get paid. . . .”

“You want to keep your mouth shut, for a very simple reason: the government bears the burden of proving you’re a criminal,” national security attorney Daniel Meyer told The Daily Beast.

Meyer added that Trump had already “left so much evidence on the record” through his own statements. “Donald Trump should have stayed quiet,” Meyer said. “And that’s what he has not done." . . .

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the outlet that “this guy will not follow Lawyering 101 — just keep your mouth shut. I know he’s doing it for PR and political reasons, but he’s really screwing himself . . . I’m sure his lawyers are incredibly frustrated having to clean up his messes,” Rahmani said.

Civil rights attorney Andrew Laufer responded to the indictment with a warning to the former president. “Someone let Trump know the following,” he tweeted. “You’re going to prison, traitor.”

“Too Much Happy Talk”: Trump Rages On Truth Social After His Team Assured Him He Won’t Be Indicted
Tatyana Tandanpolie, Salon, June 9, 2023

Former President Donald Trump erupted on social media Thursday evening after he was indicted . . .

The announcement apparently came as a surprise despite numerous reports over the past several weeks that he would soon be indicted.

“Trump is frustrated not just with the indictment but with people in his inner circle who reassured him for months that it was very unlikely to happen... source close to Trump says ‘too much happy talk for way too long’ about what could happen,” reported CBS News’ Robert Costa.

Trump Announces Own Federal Indictment In Rambling Social Media Posts
Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate, June 9, 2023

“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax,” Trump wrote in the first of several posts about Thursday’s notes, which are broken up by a junk advertisement which appears to assert that tinnitus can be cured by holding a water bottle over one's ear. . . .

In a four-minute video published on Truth Social after his initial written posts about the indictment, Trump reiterates that he believes himself to be an innocent man and complains that the United States is “in decline” and “going to hell.” He is shown standing in front of a painting that appears to be Jean Leon Gerome Ferris’ The Doctrine of Monroe, which is appropriate for a situation in which a president is claiming unilateral authority to do something related to national security.

Fox News Responds To Federal Trump Indictment With Unhinged Demagoguery
Matt Gertz, Media Matters, June 9, 2023

Former President Donald Trump has been indicted — again — and Fox News personalities are once more rallying behind him. . . .

[H]ost Jesse Watters announced the news by saying that “the president, former, calls it the boxes hoax” and suggesting that the indictment was an attempt to distract attention from the House GOP’s investigations of President Joe Biden. . . .

Trump lawyer Alina Habba called it evidence that we live in a “sick world” with “a two-tier system of justice,” citing the lack of legal punishment for Biden, his son Hunter, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. 

Former Trump aide Stephen Miller claimed that “history will record today as the day that we ceased to be a democratic republic and we became a people ruled by an unelected government bureaucracy.” 

Former Trump acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker called it “a really sad day for our country” and “the stuff of banana republics.” . . .

“What’s going on here is a disgusting disgrace. It is war on Trump, it is war on the Republican Party, and it is a war on the republic,” Fox host Mark Levin screamed. “You have crossed the Rubicon twice, which has never been done, and we will never forgive you — never, ever, and that’s the bottom line,” he added.

“It is a dark day in America,” concluded longtime Trump adviser and Fox host Sean Hannity. “There is no equal justice. There is no equal application of our laws.” He added, “Our system of justice has now been weaponized beyond belief and this country is in serious trouble." . . .

The network’s stars were similarly furious in March, when Trump was indicted on 34 charges of falsifying business records in a New York state court in connection with the $130,000 hush money payment made to an adult film actress in the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign. They urged viewers to treat the charges as an attack on the U.S. Constitution, American democracy, the rule of law, and themselves, while denouncing the prosecutor and his purported “witch hunt.”

Likewise, when news first broke of the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago, the Trumpists at Fox denounced it as “the worst attack on this republic in modern history” and part of a “preemptive coup” to prevent Trump’s reelection, among other incendiary claims, with hosts urging viewers to believe that “the real target of this investigation is you.” . . .

Trump needs the powerful propaganda apparatus of Fox to keep his supporters in line and his primary opponents at bay, and the network’s hosts and executives are happy to oblige.

Mark Levin works himself into a lather while Hannity goes off and gets a cup of coffee. Levin also called into Fox and ranted for 15 minutes.

Merrick Garland and Jack Smith Come Through: Trump Will Face Justice
Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post, June 9, 2023

In the first-ever federal indictment against a former president, special counsel Jack Smith has charged former president Donald Trump with 37 felony counts, the bulk of which allege violations of the Espionage Act. . . .

Smith’s indictment relays, in mind-numbing detail, alleged efforts by Trump to stash classified documents in nonsecure locations, including the Mar-a-Lago resort ballroom, his private residence and even a bathroom. . . .

The portrait painted could hardly be clearer: . . . Trump is shown to be personally and intimately involved in the movement and storage of the classified material. Trump was no passive bystander; according to prosecutors, he made every effort to deceive the Justice Department to retain “his” documents.

According to the indictment, the classified documents in Trump’s possession concerned myriad serious national security matters. The indictment states that “the classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding 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 a foreign attack.”

Simply put, Trump’s indictment describes some of the most egregious conduct we have seen in cases involving the alleged mishandling of classified information by politicians. . . .

Trump has still not articulated a cogent criminal defense. . . .

At Trump’s arraignment, scheduled for Tuesday in Miami, the judge will set a series of dates, including a trial date. It behooves the judge, consistent with due process, to move speedily so as to allow voters to make an informed decision about their presidential pick in 2024. We could see a trial roughly a year from now.

Damning Indictment Shows Trump Knew—and Hid Docs In A Shower
Jose Pagliery and Justin Rohrlich, The Daily Beast, June 9, 2023

[A]s a twist of the knife, the DOJ documents a number of instances when Trump discussed the importance of enforcing classified information laws.

“In my administration I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law,” Trump said on Aug. 18, 2016.

“We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified,” Trump said on Sept. 6, 2016.

The very next day, he said 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.”

“We also need the best protection of classified information,” Trump said Sept. 19, 2016. . . .

[Smith] hinted at the importance of resolving this case as quickly as possible, before the next election, saying his team would pursue a “speedy trial” in South Florida.

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