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Aug 16, 2023

Trump Was Personally Involved in Packing Boxes, Moving Them to Mar

The Justice

The Justice Department unsealed the Grand Jury indictment of former President Donald Trump on Friday.

And it's a doozy.

The indictment accuses Trump of not only retaining classified documents after he was no longer president, but also of knowingly doing so, and then conspiring to keep them, and to keep the whole thing a secret from federal investigators.

Trump had previously claimed that employees of the Government Services Agency were responsible for packing up his White House residence at the end of his presidency. But the indictment accuses Trump himself of personally helping to pack up the boxes of hundreds of classified documents that his team moved to his residence at Mar-a-Lago just as his term was ending, according to the indictment.

"In January 2021, as he was preparing to leave the White House, Trump and his White House staff... packed items, including some of Trump's boxes," the indictment says. "Trump was personally involved in the process. Trump caused his boxes, containing hundreds of classified documents, to be transported from the White House to the Mar-a-Lago Club."

The Washington Post reported Trump's alleged role in packing the boxes last year.

All told, the indictment charged Trump with 37 criminal counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and willful retention of classified documents.

According to the indictment, the documents Trump took included some of the country's most sensitive military secrets, like information about the U.S. nuclear program and vulnerabilities the country would face in the event of an attack.

President Joe Biden also kept classified documents from his time as vice president under President Barack Obama. Former Vice President Mike Pence too kept some classified documents in his home after the end of Trump's presidency. But in those cases, neither man was accused of having a direct personal role in absconding with documents, and both of them immediately returned them to the National Archives.

Trump has denied the charges and is expected to turn himself into a Florida courthouse on Tuesday.

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