Special counsel Jack Smith's charges against former President Donald Trump were unsealed on Friday, laying out the Justice Department's unprecedented and historic case against a former president.
The 49-page document was unsealed laying out 37 counts against Trump. He was hit with 31 counts for the willful retention of national defense information, one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of withholding a document or record, one count of corruptly concealing a document or record, one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation, one count for a scheme to conceal, and one count related to alleged false statements.
Trump revealed Thursday evening that Smith, who was handpicked by Attorney General Merrick Garland, had informed him that he was being indicted related to his alleged mishandling of classified records at his Florida resort home of Mar-a-Lago, and that he had been summoned to appear in a Miami federal courthouse on Tuesday afternoon.
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The former president said Friday that one of his close aides, Walt Nauta, had now been indicted too.
"The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax," Trump posted on his Truth Social social media site on Thursday evening, declaring "I AM AN INNOCENT MAN!"
Judge Aileen Cannon, a district court judge in Florida who gave Trump a temporary win when she appointed Judge Raymond Dearie to be special master in the Mar-a-Lago saga in September, has apparently been assigned to oversee the criminal case against Trump in southern Florida.
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Smith is known to have convened grand juries in the nation’s capital and in southern Florida, with the Florida grand jury reportedly receiving testimony on the classified documents saga in recent days. Trump's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has reportedly testified before one of Smith's grand juries.
It is still possible that charges could be handed down in both districts.