Prosecutors accuse the former US president of endangering a wide range of top-secret national security information after leaving the White House.
On June 9, the US Department of Justice announced a 49-page indictment, including 37 charges against Mr. Donald Trump in the investigation into the former US president's retention of classified documents.
According to the indictment, prosecutors allege that Mr. Trump mishandled many classified documents, including information about the US nuclear program and potential vulnerabilities in the event of an attack.
They also expressed concern that Mr. Trump had illegally disclosed classified documents, threatening US national security, foreign relations and intelligence operations.
Mr. Trump discussed with his lawyers the possibility of lying to government representatives when they were trying to retrieve classified documents. Mr. Trump also put documents in boxes and stored them in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, and moved other documents around the mansion to avoid detection.
Former US President Donald Trump at Aberdeen Airport, Scotland, May 1. Photo: Reuters
If convicted under the US Intelligence Act in the case of keeping classified documents, Mr. Trump will likely face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
“The National Defense Intelligence Agency Act is vital to the security of the United States and must be enforced,” said Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation into the Mar-a-Lago scandal. “No one is above the law.”
The former US president said on June 8 that he had been notified that he would be prosecuted for keeping classified documents. Mr. Trump also said he was summoned to appear in federal court in Miami, Florida, on June 13.
Investigators in August 2022 obtained about 13,000 documents from Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, including about 100 confidential documents and some top secret documents.
US law requires that presidential and vice presidential documents be transferred at the end of their terms to the National Archives, the agency responsible for their preservation and protection.
In late March, Mr. Trump became the first former US president to be prosecuted, related to the accusation of falsifying business records to pay to suppress unfavorable information in the 2016 presidential election. With the case of keeping classified documents, Mr. Trump became the first former US president to be prosecuted at the federal level.
Thanh Danh (According to Reuters )
Source link
Comment (0)