You won’t believe what they’re hiding about Trump’s indictment – Defense is reportedly intimidated!

The 49-page indictment against Donald Trump unsealed on Friday is an indictment of uncommon specificity, legal experts have said.

Accusing him of mishandling government secrets and lying to authorities, US prosecutors showed boxes containing classified documents stacked in a bathroom and alleged the former president shared details of a “plan of attack” with others.

The wide range of evidence gives the Justice Department a strong case to prove the first federal criminal charges against a former president in US history. But its unprecedented nature makes the outcome unpredictable.

Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland, obtained charges against Trump on 37 counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealment of documents in connection with a federal investigation and misrepresentation. The breadth of the indictment surprised legal analysts.

“What’s really amazing are the details” showing the sensitive nature of the documents and how Trump is handling them, said Stanford Law School professor David Alan Sklansky.

According to the indictment, Asset illegally brought classified documents, including information about US nuclear programs and military vulnerabilities, to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving the White House in January 2021.

In one instance, Trump allegedly showed visitors a US “plan of attack” on a foreign country, acknowledging that it was “highly confidential” and “secret”. An audio recording captured his comments, according to the indictment.

THE justice department also accused the ex-president of seeking to avoid complying with a subpoena asking him to hand over classified documents. “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here?” Trump allegedly said, according to one of his attorneys cited in the indictment.

Trump, who is running for president again in 2024, on Friday called Smith “deranged” and said the charges were politically motivated. He said he had “provided [the records] openly”.

Speaking at a brief press conference, Smith on Friday urged the public to read the entire document “to understand the extent and seriousness of the alleged crimes”. The special counsel is also handling an investigation into Trump’s alleged interference in the transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election.

The DoJ “did a very careful job” of making the indictment “available to the public immediately before Trump could shape the narrative by spinning what happened,” Sklansky said.

The court filing included striking photographs of boxes containing sensitive material stacked in a bathroom and shower, storage room and ballroom at Mar-a-Lago. A photo revealed spilled documents on a floor.

The footage could be “devastating,” said Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School who testified against Trump’s first presidential impeachment in 2019. responsibly by putting potentially classified documents next to the chest of drawers.”

Indictments tend to be “instruments of indictment” outlining basic information about what the government is seeking to prove, said Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia Law School. “But this indictment really gives you an idea of ​​how [the government is] going to prove these charges and that makes it. . . particularly rare and significant”.

Richard Painter, who was the White House’s chief ethics counsel in the George W Bush administration, argues that if Trump “did what is described in the indictment, he will be guilty of multiple charges”.

If Trump is found guilty, the maximum prison term for each count ranges from five to 20 years. But experts say it is unrealistic that a possible guilty verdict will result in consecutive prison sentences.

Trump’s acquittal hopes could be undermined if Waltine Nauta, a former White House valet who worked as his aide and was charged as an alleged co-conspirator, decides to cooperate with the government. Nauta could not be reached for comment.

“It’s intimidating for the defense,” Turley said. “The scope and specificity of the evidence is going to make this a very difficult trial.”

Absent from the indictment were potentially more damaging allegations that Trump shared classified documents with foreign parties.

“In front of a jury, I assume his defense attorneys will point out those distinctions,” said Rob Kelner, head of the election and policy group at Covington, a law firm. He added that there was “less evidence” that Trump misused classified records or had “malicious intent to harm the country.”

If the case goes to trial, prosecutors must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt to the full jury in South Florida, a politically mixed region with a strong base of support for Trump.

“The whole reason for Trump’s defense team will be to bring in this dissident, probably a juror from Florida who sympathizes with Trump,” Kelner said.

Bringing the case to Washington rather than Florida could have benefited the DoJ, analysts said.

But the government may have wanted to avoid initiating proceedings with a potential dispute over the court venue, according to Sklansky. “It just simplifies things by taking a problem off the table,” he said.

The federal judge handling the case, Aileen Cannon, could also present potential difficulties for the DoJ. Appointed by Trump, she granted the ex-president’s request last year for a “special master” to review documents seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago, a decision that temporarily froze the government investigation but was ultimately overturned by an appeals court. .

Some argue that federal prosecutors faced an added level of difficulty regardless of the legal merits of the case because Trump was a former president.

“In a normal case, it would be game, set, match [for the prosecution]”, Kelner said. “But this is not a normal case.”