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Former President Donald Trump and Trump aide, Walt Nauta, have been indicted in the special counsel’s classified documents probe.

Trump is facing a charge under the Espionage Act, his attorney Jim Trusty said on CNN Thursday, as well as charges of obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy and false statements. Details from the indictment have not yet been made public.

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The former president is expected to appear in a Miami courthouse on Tuesday afternoon. Read more about why the case will unfold in Florida.

Here are the latest developments on Friday:

• Trump aide indicted: Walt Nauta, an aide to Trump, was also indicted in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents, according to one source familiar with the matter. Nauta’s involvement in moving boxes of classified material at Trump’s Florida resort had been the subject of scrutiny by investigators. Nauta, with the help of a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, moved the boxes before the FBI executed a search warrant on the Palm Beach property last August.
• The investigation: Special counsel Jack Smith has been investigating Trump’s handling of national security records at his Mar-a-Lago resort and elsewhere. His team is trying to determine if Trump or his aides committed crimes by keeping the documents after his presidency. Those were sensitive government documents that Trump had no legal right to hold on to, prosecutors have said in court filings.
• Admission on tape: Trump acknowledged on tape in a 2021 meeting that he had retained “secret” military information that he had not declassified, according to a transcript of the audio recording obtained by CNN. “As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” Trump says, according to the transcript. Publicly, Trump has claimed that all the documents he brought with him to his Florida residence are declassified.
• Legal team changes: Trump announced on Truth Social that he will be represented by Todd Blanche, a defense lawyer he hired in April after being indicted in Manhattan. Trump is also planning to add another Florida-based attorney to the case, sources familiar with his thinking said. This is a major change to his legal team. His attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley said they will no longer represent Trump on either the federal indictment case or the January 6 investigation.
• The judge: Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon, who Trump appointed, has been initially assigned to oversee the federal criminal case in Miami, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. If she remains on the case she would have wide latitude to control timing and evidence in the case and be able to vet the Justice Department’s legal theory. Cannon emerged in the public spotlight last year when she oversaw court proceedings related to the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
• Security preparations: Federal and local law enforcement officials are working on a plan to deliver Trump to the Miami federal courthouse where he will be formally placed under arrest and processed, according to law enforcement officials briefed on the discussions. Officials from various agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, are meeting in Miami to discuss security preparations.

CNN

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