Former President Donald Trump was federally indicted on Thursday, with the indictment being unsealed on Friday afternoon. The charges against him include 31 counts of willful retention of classified national-security information, five counts of obstruction of justice, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. These charges relate to material that Trump took from the White House after his presidency, stored in Mar-a-Lago, and refused to return. The indictment is available to read and includes evidentiary submissions, such as photographs and excerpts of recorded conversations.
The nature of the material that Trump took is damning, with information regarding defense and weapons capabilities, nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities, and plans for retaliation in response to a foreign attack being included in the classified documents. Trump’s actions were less an act of mere carelessness and more of an active threat to United States national security, fueled solely by his demented behavior and sense of self-entitlement.
The indictment reveals that Trump intentionally stole some of America’s most critical national-security secrets for his private amusement and stored them in recklessly insecure ways. He attempted to conceal possession of them and later refused to return them, continuing to break the law in dangerous and contemptuous ways. This lawbreaking was more reckless and arrogant than what he did during the run-up to January 6.
The former president’s actions were so egregious that the selective enforcement argument does not apply. Trump’s lawbreaking in this case was dangerous and ongoing, and if he is not stopped, it will happen again. The indictment also turns the Hillary Clinton question right back around on Trump, who was happy to lead chants of “Lock her up!” on the dais in 2016 but declined to prosecute her in 2017. In private, he praised Clinton and her legal team’s skill in concealing crimes, displaying the gangster standard that he aspired to embody for his benefit, not America’s.
It is up to individuals whether they choose to support Trump in the 2024 campaign or not. However, the indictment makes it clear that his actions were a threat to national security and that he must be held accountable.
