The timeline of events that led to Donald Trump’s 49-page federal indictment not only has allegations that Trump had mishandled sensitive material but also took steps to hide records and also made attempts to prevent investigators from finding out facts.
Some of the key events that led to the 37 criminal charges against D. Trump.
Jan 20, 2021:
As Trump leaves white house he ordered his staff to move dozens of boxes to Mar-a-Lago. These boxes contains classifies documents, mementos, newspaper clippings, photos and other documents that as a former president, he wasn’t authorized to have and under presidential record act these documents must be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
Feb 2021: Some of the boxes that were brought by Trump were are stored on a stage in one of Mar-a-Lago’s gilded ballrooms. Indictment have a picture of boxes stacked on a stage.
March 15, 2021: Boxes brought from the White house were moved from the ballroom to the business center at Mar-a-Lago.
April 2021: Some of the boxes are moved into a bathroom and shower. Indictment shows a photo of boxes placed near a toilet.
May 2021: D. Trump directed his employees to clean a storage room at the ground floor of Mar-a-Lago so the boxes can be stored there. Trump also directed his employees that some boxes be brought to his Bedminster, New Jersey, summer residence.
National Archives on realizing that some documents are missing asks Trump that he turn over any presidential records he may have kept upon leaving the White House. The agency makes subsequent, repeated demands.
June 2021: National archives warns Trump through his representative that the matter will be transferred to Justice department if he doesn’t comply.
June 24, 2021: Boxes are moved to the storage room. More than 80 boxes are kept there.
Jul 21, 2021: Trump allegedly showed a military plan to a writer interviewing him at his Bedminster property.
Trump remarks, “As president I could have declassified it. … Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” according to the indictment, citing a recording of the interview.
Aug/Sep 2021: According to the indictment, Trump allegedly shows a classified map relating to a foreign military operation to a representative of his political action committee at his Bedminster golf course.
Nov 2021: Trump directs his executive assistant Walt Nauta and another employee to start moving boxes from a storage room to his residence for him to review. Nauta is charged as a co-conspirator in the indictment.
Dec 07, 2021: Nauta finds that several of Trump’s boxes have fallen, spilling papers onto the storage room floor, the indictment says. Among them is a document with a “SECRET” intelligence marking.
According to the indictment, Nauta texts another Trump employee, “I opened the door and found this,” to which the other employee replies, “Oh no oh no.”
Late Dec 2021: National archives continue to demand that Trump turn over missing records. In late December 2021, a Trump representative tells the agency that 12 boxes of records have been found and are ready to be retrieved.
Jan 17, 2022: Trump turns over 15 boxes to the national archives. According to the indictment, documents are loaded in Nauta’s car and he take them to a commercial truck for delivery to the agency.
The boxes are found to contain 197 documents with classified markings, including 69 marked confidential, 98 secret, and 30 top secret. Some documents have markings suggesting they include information from highly sensitive human sources or the collection of electronic “signals” authorized by a court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Feb 09, 2022: National archives refer the matter to the Justice Department. The special agent in charge of the agency’s Office of the Inspector General writes, “Of most significant concern was that highly classified records were unfolded, intermixed with other records” and otherwise improperly identified.
Feb 10, 2022: A statement from Trump’s America PAC is issued insisting the return of the documents had been “routine” and “no big deal.”
Trump insists the “papers were given easily and without conflict and on a very friendly basis,” and adds, “It was a great honor to work with” the National Archives “to help formally preserve the Trump Legacy.”
Feb 18, 2022: National archives writes a letter to a congressional oversight committee and reveals the boxes contained classified information and confirms the Justice Department referral.
Trump’s Save America PAC releases another statement insisting, “The National Archives did not ‘find’ anything,” but “were given, upon request, Presidential Records in an ordinary and routine process to ensure the preservation of my legacy and in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.”
Mar 30, 2022: FBI opens it’s investigation.
Apr 12, 2022: National archives informs Trump that as per Justice department request, it intends to provide FBI the 15 boxes he returned.
Trump representative asked for an extension until Apr 29.
Apr 29, 2022: Justice department asks Trump’s lawyers for the immediate access to the 15 boxes. Trump’s lawyers again ask for an extension, saying they need to review the material to “ascertain whether any specific document is subject to privilege.”
May 10, 2022: National archives informs Trump’s lawyers that it will provide FBI access to the boxes by May 12.
May 11, 2022: A subpoena issued by a grand jury to Trump and his office that they turn over all classified materials in their possession.
May 23, 2022: Trump’s lawyers advise him to comply with subpoena but he denied.
May 26, 2022: Nauta is interviewed by the FBI and, according to prosecutors, repeatedly lies about his knowledge of the movement of boxes at Mar-a-Lago.
Nauta also lies when asked whether he knew where Trump’s boxes were stored before they went to his residence and whether they’d been in a secured or locked location, prosecutors say. His reply, according to the indictment: “I wish, I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. I don’t — I honestly just don’t know.”
Jun 02, 2022: One of Trump’s lawyer search the boxes at Mar-a-Lago and finds 38 additional classified documents — five documents marked confidential, 16 marked secret and 17 marked top secret.
June 03, 2022: FBI agents and Justice department lawyer visited Mar-a-Lago to collect the 38 classified documents. Investigators are allowed to go to the storage room but prohibited from looking inside the boxes.
Jun 08, 2022: Justice department sends a letter to Trump’s lawyer asking them to preserve all the boxes moved from White House until further notice.
Jul 2023: The grand jury is shown the video of boxes being moved at Mar-a-Lago.
Aug 05, 2022: Justice department applies for a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago for probable citing probable cause. U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart approves the application the same day.
Aug 08, 2022: The FBI searches searches Mar-a-Lago, seizing 102 classified documents — 75 in the storage room and 27 in Trump’s office, including three found in office desks.
Aug 12, 2022: The warrant was made public authorizing the Mar-a-Lago search. The document reveals that federal agents are investigating potential violations of three federal laws, including the Espionage Act.
Aug 26, 2022: An affidavit laying out the FBI’s rationale for searching Mar-a-Lago is made public.
Aug. 30, 2022: After Trump’s lawyers request a special master to review the documents for possible executive privilege.
June 08, 2023: A grand jury in Miami indicts Trump and Nauta. Trump announces the indictment on his Truth Social platform, calling it “a DARK DAY for the United States of America.”
June 09, 2023: The indictment is made public. It shows that Trump is charged with 37 felony counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing a document or record and willful retention of national defense information. Nauta is charged with six counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice.
June 13, 2023: Trump is scheduled to make an initial court appearance at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Miami.
