Trump indictment live updates: Former president to surrender in classified documents case

The judge assigned to the former president’s federal criminal case is a Trump appointee who stirred controversy over her involvement in a prior matter related to the classified documents scandal.

Judge Aileen Cannon last year temporarily blocked the Justice Department from reviewing the documents seized in the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago and granted Trump’s request to have a special master examine the records.

Some legal experts balked at Cannon’s rulings in that case. A federal appeals court overturned her order to appoint a special master, ending the review.

The New York Times reported that Cannon was assigned Trump’s criminal case randomly, as is the usual process. But Cannon has already faced calls to recuse herself.

— Kevin Breuninger

The federal magistrate judge overseeing Trump’s arraignment has barred any photos or videos from being taken in the courtroom or the outside corridor prior to the former president’s appearance.

A coalition of more than a dozen local and national media outlets, including NBC Universal, had asked Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman on Monday to permit “a limited number of photographs and videorecordings” before the arraignment.

They also asked the court to immediately release audio recordings of the proceedings to the public. “This is a case of exceptional public interest to the entire country and beyond,” the coalition wrote in a court filing.

In an order Monday night, Goodman denied both requests.

“The Press Coalition argues that tomorrow’s first appearance and arraignment are ‘special proceedings,’ but the Undersigned is not convinced,” Goodman ruled.

“I follow the ‘stay in your lane’ philosophy,” Goodman wrote, noting that his involvement with the case will likely end after the arraignment, when it is handed off to Judge Aileen Cannon.

“I do not feel it is appropriate for me to rule on what happens in future proceedings when I am not the district court judge and when I will have no involvement whatsoever,” he wrote.

Goodman also cited court rules that broadly prohibit “all forms” of recording in the district court.

— Kevin Breuninger

Special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of former President Trump is packed with detail and evidence, but there’s probably more. A lot more, according to Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor who’s taking on Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

“What I can tell you, for sure, I know about that indictment, is there’s probably about a third of the evidence they actually have is in that indictment,” the former New Jersey governor and one-time Trump ally said during a CNN town hall Monday night. “When you’re a prosecutor, you never put every card on the table before the trial.”

Christie, a longshot for the nomination, has nonetheless decided to run so he can directly attack Trump and help keep him from running against President Biden in next year’s general election. Early polls show that Trump is the clear leader in the primary field.

– Mike Calia

Trump is planning to head to his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey for a presidential fundraiser after his arraignment in a Miami courtroom on federal charges that he kept reams of classified documents.

Trump will be return to his golf course later on Tuesday for a 2024 campaign fundraiser that calls on donors to to raise or give $100,000 for the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee. That amount allows contributors to have a “private candlelight dinner” with the former president and to join a VIP reception with “elected officials & special guests,” according to an invite to the event.

Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks from his property just after 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

— Brian Schwartz

A federal grand jury has returned an unprecedented indictment against a singular, and singularly positioned, politician leading an unusual presidential primary race.

So the way the case plays out on the campaign trail is anyone’s guess.

It may be natural to assume, for instance, that being accused of crimes would damage a candidate’s political standing. But bear in mind that Trump has already been indicted by prosecutors in Manhattan since entering the 2024 Republican primary race, and those charges — 34 counts of falsifying business records — do not appear to have diminished his overall lead in the polls.

Since the latest indictment, many of Trump’s Republican allies have issued statements defending him, or at least criticizing the Justice Department’s actions. Republicans have lobbed a common suggestion that the agency under the Biden administration has become politicized or “weaponized.” Even some of Trump’s primary opponents have joined in that chorus.

Some recent polling after the indictment has yielded polarizing results. An ABC News/Ipsos survey conducted Friday and Saturday found almost half of Americans believe Trump should have been indicted — but nearly the same percentage said they think the charges against him are politically motivated.

Trump, meanwhile, has vowed to stay in the race even if he is convicted. And he is reportedly set to host a campaign fundraiser just hours after his indictment.

— Kevin Breuninger

Trump kept a trove of classified documents from several federal agencies at his expansive Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, according to an indictment unsealed on Friday.

Federal prosecutors allege in a 49-page indictment that Trump had documents with details on “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.”

Prosecutors added that Trump’s alleged unauthorized disclosure of the 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.”

The indictment does not reveal further details of what the documents contain beyond general descriptions, given their classified nature.

The documents found in Trump’s possession contained intelligence assessments from the Pentagon, National Reconnaissance Office, CIA, NSA and the Department of Energy, which oversees America’s nuclear weapons arsenal, according to the indictment.

The 37-count criminal indictment adds that Trump kept the classified documents in his bedroom, bathroom, ballroom, office and storage room, all while hosting more than 150 social events “that drew tens of thousands of guests” to the property.

During an FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago in August, 102 documents with classification markings were seized from Trump’s office and storage room. Of those, 17 were denoted as “top secret,” the highest intelligence classification level. Another 54 documents were labeled as “secret,” according to a tally included in the indictment.

— Amanda Macias

The historic first federal indictment of a former president charges Trump with seven different crimes spanning 37 counts.

Trump is accused of unlawfully taking dozens of documents related to U.S. national defense and storing them at his Palm Beach, Florida, residence and private club, Mar-a-Lago. Many of those documents bore “TOP SECRET” or other classification markings. At least two of them reference nuclear information, according to the indictment.

Thirty-one of the counts against Trump fall under this charge, known as the Espionage Act, which carries a maximum prison term of 10 years, according to prosecutors.

Trump is also charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing documents and making false statements. The charges of obstruction and concealing and withholding documents all bear 20-year maximum prison sentences, while the charges of scheming to conceal and making false statements carry 5-year prison maximums, according to the indictment.

Here are all the charges Trump — and his aide Walt Nauta, who is also charged in the indictment — face in the special counsel’s case:

• Willful retention of national defense information: 31 counts against Trump
• Conspiracy to obstruct justice: 1 count against Trump and Nauta
• Withholding a document or record: 1 count against Trump and Nauta
• Corruptly concealing a document or record: 1 count against Trump and Nauta
• Concealing a document in a federal investigation: 1 count against Trump and Nauta
• Scheme to conceal: 1 count against Trump and Nauta
• False statements and representations: 1 count against Trump
• False statements and representations: 1 count against Nauta

— Kevin Breuninger