Five key questions in the case against former president

Donald Trump is accused of retaining 31 documents containing national defence secrets of both the US and allies, including Australia.

Donald Trump’s aide Walt Nauta early on became a focus of the investigation into the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Picture: Reuters

1. What’s in the documents?

Donald Trump is accused of retaining 31 documents containing national defence secrets including “information regarding defence and weapons capabilities of both the US States and foreign countries, including Australia; nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the US and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack”, the 49-page indictment states. He allegedly showed a writer a “plan of attack” prepared for him by the defence department, calling it “highly confidential” and “secret”, and showed another person “a classified map related to a military operation”.

2 Can he run for president from jail?

Each of the 31 counts of “wilful retention of national defence information” carries a maximum fine of $US250,000 and 10 years in prison but Mr Trump faces four further charges that carry a jail term of up to 20 years including “conspiracy to obstruct justice” and “corruptly concealing a document or record”.

There are two further charges with maximum penalties of five years, including making “false statements and representations”.

There is no prohibition on running for president from a jail cell in the US (it has been done before, unsuccessfully).

3. Will this boost faith in the law?

Commentators in the US see this first federal criminal prosecution in history of a former president as an extreme test of the credibility of the justice system after Mr Trump severely tested the electoral system on January 6, 2021. Mr Trump has spent years attacking the Department of Justice as corrupt, convincing millions of his supporters that he is being egregiously targeted to stop his return to the White House.

Most of his Republican rivals for the 2024 presidential nomination are fanning the same flames because they appeal to the same pool of voters.

4. Who is the valet?

One other person has been charged in the indictment as a “co-conspirator”, Mr Trump’s valet Walt Nauta, a former US navy cook from Guam, who faces five charges with Mr Trump, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and one charge separately of making false statements and representations. Mr Nauta was allegedly seen on surveillance video removing 64 boxes of documents from a storage room and delivering them to Mr Trump’s residence, returning only 30 boxes to the room and lying about this to investigators. Some see the charges as an attempt to “flip” him to become a witness against the former president.

5. What about Hillary?

Hillary Clinton could be forgiven for feeling a certain schadenfreude as the issue of mishandling secret documents comes full circle. Mr Trump spent much of the 2016 campaign berating his Democrat rival for sending emails from a private server while she was secretary of state, accusing her of endangering national security.

She wasn’t charged.

THE SUNDAY TIMES