Federal indictment of former President Donald Trump unsealed

An indictment charging former President Donald Trump with mishandling classified documents has been unsealed.

The document released Friday marks the Justice Department’s first official confirmation of a criminal case against Trump arising from the retention of hundreds of documents at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago.

The indictment alleges Trump kept classified documents in the bathroom and shower at his Florida estate, as well as various other locations that included a ballroom, storeroom, office and bedroom.

Prosecutors noted that “tens of thousands of members and guests” visited the “active social club” of Mar-a-Lago between the end of Trump’s presidency in January 2021 through the August 2022 search. They argued that “nonetheless” Trump stored documents “in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, and office space, his bedroom, and a storage room.”

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A photo provided by the Justice Department, and included in the unsealed indictment of former President Donald Trump, shows document boxes in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence and private club in Palm Beach, Fla. (Department of Justice via The New York Times)

The indictment claims that, for a two-month period between January and March 15, some of Trump’s boxes were stored in one of Mar-a-Lago’s gilded ballroom. A picture included in the indictment shows boxes stacked in rows on the ballroom’s stage.

The indictment also shows photographs of boxes that spilled over in the storage room, including a document marked SECRET/REL TO USA, FVEY” which means information releasable only to members of the intelligence alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the photo the classified document is redacted.

Read the indictment below: