Trump indicted. What you need to know about how we got here.

June 8, 2023

Trump indicted. What we know so far.

Now that the former President says he’s been indicted – I thought it would be helpful to give you a timeline so you fully understand what’s going on and you have the back story and give you some details as we know them now about the charges filed.

Even if you think you know what’s going on – this video still may give you some insight and details that you weren’t aware of.  

This is a deep dive – so if you don’t have time to watch this video now – favorite it and come back to it when you have a few minutes.

The first thing you have to understand is – the case about classified documents goes back farther than you think. It didn’t start with a search warrant of Mar-a-Lago. It actually goes back a year and half before – back to May of 2021 – four months after Trump left the White House. That’s when the national archives first said to Trump’s team — hey we noticed some of his Presidential records are missing can you send them over. You know – because that’s the law.

Then – crickets. Nothing.

It wasn’t until six months later in December of 2021 that Trump’s lawyers responded to the national archives and said hey we’ve got 15 boxes of documents to give back to you. Those boxes were turned over in January of 2022. The national archives went through those boxes and in February of 2022 was like – mmm…we’re still missing some stuff – can you please return all the Presidential records and classified documents you have.

Again – crickets.

So then in May of 2022 the Department of Justice got involved and was like – dude – the national archives has been asking for this stuff for a year. Here’s a subpoena to get the documents.

In June of 2022 the FBI went to Mar-a-Lago for a meeting and they were handed some newly discovered documents and a letter from the former President’s attorney saying I swear there are no more documents. This is that meeting where the FBI agents were not given access to a locked basement inside Mar-a-Lago.

After that meeting – it was game on. Now the government is really suspicious about what’s going on with these documents. Later in June the Department of Justice sent a letter to Trump’s lawyers telling them to secure that storage room. And by August – there’s a federal search warrant and a search of Mar-a-Lago. That search turned up 33 separate “items”. Each item includes boxes full of stuff, containers full of stuff or groupings of documents. Some of them were found in the Mar-a-Lago storage room and some were found in the 45 office. According to legal documents the FBI found 184 classified documents. 67 were marked as confidential, 92 secret documents and 25 were marked as top secret. Some of those were top secret sci.

But that’s not where it stops….after that search in august – the DOJ issued another request for documents in September saying we believe there’s still more Presidential records in the former president’s possession.

In November of 2022 – the Department of Justice appointed a special counsel to independently look into this case. Former DOJ prosecutor jack smith was given the job. Smith originally joined the US Attorney’s office in the late 1990s, spent several year with the DOJ and then left to become the chief prosecutor at the Hague.

By December of 2022 and January of 2023 – Trump’s lawyers turned over more documents with classified markings and a laptop belonging to an aide that were discovered in Trump’s possession.

You can see the long history of these documents. It goes back years.

As for the charges – the Presidents attorney has said former President Trump is being charged with seven counts including violation of the Espionage Act.

Violations of the Espionage Act section 793 applies to those who obtain information respecting the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation. He also said

It’s important to remember in this country everyone including the former president is innocent until proven guilty.

We still have not officially seen the actual indictment it is still under seal and we are expecting the former president to answer to these charges in Miami federal court at three pm. The former President continues to assert that he’s done nothing wrong.