US Judge Aileen Cannon on Monday (15) dismissed the criminal case against former President Donald Trump involving confidential White House documents.
Remember the case
Donald Trump was indicted in June 2023 by a federal grand jury in Miami on charges of obtaining classified national defense documents from the White House after leaving office and resisting government attempts to retrieve the materials.
Both Trump and his adviser Walt Nauta have pleaded not guilty.
On July 27, 2023, Special Counsel Jack Smith brought three new charges against Trump, including an additional charge of willful withholding of national defense information. Nauta also received two new charges.
A third defendant, Carlos de Oliveira, was added to the case with four charges, including conspiracy to obstruct the original charge.
Main evidence
- Recording of Trump discussing possession of classified documents that he has not declassified.
- About 100 classified documents found in an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022.
- Surveillance footage turned over to the Justice Department allegedly shows Nauta and De Oliveira moving boxes of documents around the resort
The FBI executed a search warrant in August 2022 at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents, including classified documents, that may have been taken there.
This was an extraordinary and historic search of the home of a former president.
Before the initial charges against Trump were filed in June 2023, authorities tried — and failed — throughout 2021 and 2022 to recover documents in Trump’s possession.
The National Archives, which is responsible for collecting and classifying presidential records, said in early 2022 that at least 15 boxes of White House records had been recovered from the property, including some that were classified.
The government’s efforts culminated in the FBI executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in which federal agents seized thousands of documents, about 100 of which were marked confidential.
Jack Smith has been named special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into the documents issue and Trump’s efforts to undermine the 2020 election results.
The indictment unsealed in June alleges that Trump withheld documents related to national defense that were classified to the highest level, some of which were so sensitive they required special handling.
The Justice Department selected 31 documents — one for each of the 31 counts of willful withholding that Trump faced. Several of the records concern the military capabilities of various countries, prosecutors said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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