United States of America v. Donald J. Trump, Waltine Nauta, and Carlos De Oliveira was a federal criminal case against Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States; Walt Nauta, his personal aide and valet; and Mar-a-Lago maintenance chief Carlos De Oliveira. The grand jury indictment brought 40 felony counts against Trump related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after his first presidency, to which he pleaded not guilty. The case marked the first federal indictment of a former U.S. president.
On June 8, 2023, the original indictment with 37 felony counts against Trump was filed in the federal district court in Miami by the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith. On July 27, a superseding indictment charged an additional three felonies against Trump. Trump was charged separately for each of 32 documents under the Espionage Act. The other eight charges against him included making false statements and engaging in a conspiracy to obstruct justice. The most serious charges against Trump and Nauta carried a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. There were no mandatory minimum penalties.
Trump was arraigned on June 13, 2023, Nauta was arraigned on July 12, and both were arraigned on additional charges on August 10. De Oliveira was arraigned on August 15 on four criminal counts related to an alleged attempt to delete surveillance footage. All pleaded not guilty to all charges. Though Judge Aileen Cannon initially set trial for May 20, 2024, she postponed it and then dismissed the case on July 15, ruling that the appointment of Smith had been unconstitutional.
Though the special counsel appealed the dismissal, it later chose to wind down the case following Trump's election in November 2024, in part due to its long-standing department policy not to prosecute a sitting president. It abandoned its appeal regarding Trump (which the court dismissed without prejudice on November 25) and the Department of Justice asked the court to dismiss its case regarding Nauta and de Oliveira (dismissed with prejudice on January 29, 2025).
After Trump took office for the second time, the Department of Justice returned to him the boxes that the FBI had seized in August 2022. On February 28, 2025, Trump brought the boxes to Mar-a-Lago.
Background
Under the Presidential Records Act (PRA), presidential documents must be transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) by the end of a president's term. Trump's term ended in January 2021. In May 2021, NARA became aware of missing documents from the Trump administration, and began an effort to retrieve documents improperly taken to Trump's residences at Mar-a-Lago and The Bedminster Club. Later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) obtained evidence that Trump was personally involved in causing the documents to be taken. Some of the stolen documents were, as Representative Jamie Raskin wrote, "so sensitive that only six people in the entire U.S. government had access to them" and furthermore "pertained to his [Trump's] business interests".
After repeatedly demanding the return of documents from Trump's team and warning them of a possible referral to the Justice Department, NARA retrieved 15 boxes of documents in January 2022. NARA discovered that the boxes contained classified material, and notified the Justice Department on February 9. This led the FBI to launch an investigation into Trump's handling of government documents on March 30. In May, a grand jury issued a subpoena for any remaining documents in Trump's possession. Trump certified that he was returning all the remaining documents on June 3, but the FBI later obtained evidence that he had intentionally moved documents to hide them from his lawyers and the FBI and thus had not fulfilled the subpoena.
This led to the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022, in which the FBI recovered over 13,000 government documents, over 300 of which were classified, with some relating to national defense secrets covered under the Espionage Act. The civil lawsuit Trump v. United States arose from the search, which briefly led to the appointment of a special master by District Judge Aileen Cannon to review seized materials. Cannon's ruling was later overturned.
In a November 2, 2022 interview with the FBI, a former Trump White House employee said that Nauta had been promised a pardon, "even if he gets charged with lying to the FBI", should Trump regain the presidency.
In November 2022, the FBI investigation was taken over by a special counsel investigation, under the direction of Jack Smith who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. A second civil case allowed the Smith investigation to make use of the crime-fraud exception to attorney–client privilege to access certain evidence in the case.
In March 2023, the FBI initiated contact with Brian Butler, a 20-year-employee of Mar-a-Lago and longtime close friend of De Oliveira. Butler had helped move boxes of documents, not realizing what type of documents were inside nor others' intent to hide them. He provided information to investigators about the actions of De Oliveira and Nauta.
In March 2023, Judge Beryl Howell wrote: "Notably, no excuse is provided as to how the former president could miss the classified-marked documents found in his own bedroom at Mar-a-Lago." Howell was referring to additional documents that Trump's attorneys found in his office and bedroom at Mar-a-Lago months after the FBI search, including a "mostly empty" folder marked as "Classified Evening Summary".
Indictments and arraignments
Original indictment
The grand jury handed up the indictment under seal on June 8, 2023. The indictment was unsealed the following day, and special counsel Jack Smith gave a brief statement emphasizing the seriousness of the charges and stating that his office would seek a speedy trial. In the court where the defendants were arraigned, scheduling trial within 70 days of a criminal indictment would normally be considered "speedy", but the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) applies, and those required procedures may take additional time. As the Guardian explains, "the seven-stage Cipa process is sequential, meaning each previous section has to be completed before the case can proceed to the next section."
Its 37 counts against Trump and six against Walt Nauta include willfully retaining national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The conspiracy to obstruct justice charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison; violations of the Espionage Act carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. There are no mandatory minimum penalties.
Trump (37 counts):
31 counts of retaining and failing to deliver national defense documents under the Espionage Act.
Each of these charges is for possession of a separate, specific document. Ten of these documents were handed over to the government in June 2022, and the other 21 were recovered in the August 2022 search. According to the indictment, the 31 documents describe U.S. nuclear weapons; foreign military attacks, plans, capabilities, and effects on U.S. interests; foreign nuclear capabilities; foreign support for terrorist activity; communications with foreign leaders; U.S. military activities; White House daily foreign intelligence briefings; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.
5 counts relating to conspiracy to obstruct justice and withholding documents and records
1 count of making false statements.
Nauta (6 counts):
5 counts relating to conspiracy to obstruct justice and withholding documents and records
1 count of making false statements.
The indictment included photographs showing boxes containing classified information in "a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom and a storage room" at Trump's Florida home. Boxes containing classified materials were stored on a stage in the White and Gold ballroom, where events took place, from January to March 2021, before being moved to the Mar-a-Lago business center.
It included transcripts of an audio recording it says are of Trump showing a classified U.S. military attack plan (the name of the target country is redacted) to a book publisher, writer, and two staff members in July 2021, while saying he was unable to declassify the document. News reports said the target country was Iran that and Trump was showing the document to the writers while complaining that General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had unfairly portrayed him to the media. Milley later told a journalist: "Our job is to render advice. We have plans for all kinds of things ... Not one time have I ever recommended to attack Iran."
Originally, the indictment alleged that in fall 2021, Trump showed a classified military map to a representative of his political action committee (PAC) (later identified in the press as Susie Wiles, CEO of his Save America PAC) who did not have a security clearance, and that Trump acted to keep classified documents he knew he could not be in possession of because they had been subpoenaed. However, on June 10, 2024, Judge Cannon ordered that the paragraph about the map be removed from the indictment. She said it was unnecessary since Trump was not being charged for the alleged map incident.
Superseding indictment
Shortly after Trump and Nauta's original indictment in June, a target letter was sent to Yuscil Taveras, the director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago who oversees the surveillance cameras. At first, Taveras was represented by attorney Stanley Woodward, whose legal fees were paid for by Trump's Save America PAC to represent Taveras and a number of Trump allies. While represented by Woodward, Taveras provided testimony to the grand jury. On July 5, after being told that Woodward might have a conflict of interest, Taveras notified the court he wished to drop Woodward as his attorney and to switch to a public defender. Taveras then retracted his previous testimony and provided new information regarding a plot to delete surveillance video at the Florida property that implicated Trump and others. This led to a superseding indictment in which Taveras was not charged. He agreed to testify for the prosecution.
On July 27, a superseding indictment was filed, charging an additional defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, the maintenance chief at Mar-a-Lago, and adding new counts for Trump and Nauta. In the new indictment, all three defendants face two counts related to the attempt to delete the surveillance footage:
"Altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object" (Title 18 USC Sections 1512(b)(2)(B) and 2)
"Corruptly altering, destroy, mutilating or concealing a document, record, or other object" (Title 18 USC Section 1512(c)(1))
In the new indictment, Trump also faces an additional count of willful retention of national defense information under the Espionage Act. The 32nd document is the Iran document he referenced in the July 2021 conversation. The indictment says that he possessed it until January 17, 2022, so it may have been inside the 15 boxes of material he voluntarily surrendered to NARA that month (before the subpoenas and search).
Charging Trump with these three new counts brings his total number of counts to 40.
Assignment of district judge
Federal judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed to the bench by Trump in 2020, was randomly assigned to preside over the case. Shortly after her assignment in June 2023, two federal judges urged her to step down, but she did not.
Cannon had previously made unprecedented rulings favorable to Trump in 2022, particularly in appointing a special master to review seized documents, which temporarily stymied the FBI and special counsel investigations. The rulings were criticized by legal scholars, and a panel of the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit unanimously overruled them, writing, "We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so."
Arraignments
Trump arrived in Miami the day before his arraignment at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse and had dinner at his golf club in Doral with his lawyer Christopher Kise; Nauta; Nauta's Washington DC lawyer Stanley Woodward; right-wing activist and President of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton; and other advisers.
Trump
At his June 13 arraignment, Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts. Trump and Nauta were both released. Trump was instructed not to speak about the case to any of the 84 witnesses, including Nauta, who continues to be Trump's personal assistant. Trump was represented by Todd Blanche, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Manhattan federal prosecutor's office who is also representing him in his prosecution by the Manhattan district attorney. (Trump attorneys Jim Trusty [wd] and John Rowley [wd] had resigned the day after the indictment.) At the arraignment, Blanche entered the plea on Trump's behalf. At Trump's arraignment, Miami police had prepared for up to 50,000 protestors, though only 500 protestors came.
Trump is also represented in the matter by Lindsey Halligan. Halligan is the local counsel for the case and filed the Motions to Appear Pro Hac Vice for Evan Corcoran and James Trusty, initially on August 22, 2022. She was one of the few lawyers working for Trump who was on site during the FBI search, which she said was a "huge surprise". She said Trump's subsequent indictment goes "for the jugular".
On August 4, in a court filing, Trump pleaded not guilty to the three new counts. He told the court he would not appear in person for the arraignment. At the August 10 arraignment, the judge formally accepted the plea he had submitted.
Nauta
On June 13, Nauta appeared in court, but he could not be arraigned because his lawyer was not eligible to represent him in Florida. On July 6, Nauta, having hired a Florida lawyer, Sasha Dadan, pleaded not guilty. On August 10, he appeared in court again and pleaded not guilty to the added charges.
De Oliveira
On July 31, De Oliveira appeared in court and was released on $100,000 bond. He was represented by John Irving, whose firm had been paid nearly $200,000 by Trump's Save America PAC. His arraignment was delayed because he did not have a Florida lawyer. He was arraigned on August 15 and pleaded not guilty.
Pretrial proceedings
The trial will involve procedures under the Classified Information Procedures Act. Under that act, the government plans to share classified documents relevant to the case with the defense as part of discovery. On June 19, a judge issued a protective order that restricted Trump to viewing the relevant documents under his attorneys' supervision and explicitly prohibited him from publicly discussing the evidence, as DOJ had requested three days earlier.
2023
By the third week of June, the government began disclosing unclassified evidence to the defense as part of the discovery process. That includes documents obtained via warrants and subpoenas; transcripts of witness testimony before the grand jury; witness interviews; and copies of the videorecordings from Mar-a-Lago. The government's first discovery disclosure to the defense included at least 833,450 pages of material, including emails and other documents; of this set, about 4,500 pages were designated as "key" documents, the most crucial evidence.
On July 18, lawyers for Trump and Nauta attended the first pretrial conference, while Trump went to Iowa for a televised campaign event with Sean Hannity. Several days later, the judge set another pretrial hearing for May 14, 2024.
On August 22, prosecutors made a court filing asking whether Stanley Woodward may have a conflict of interest if he has to cross-examine Taveras, who was formerly his client. At an October 12 hearing, Cannon complained that prosecutors had introduced new arguments during oral argument and said she would potentially schedule further hearings about the matter in the future.
Following a September 12 hearing (postponed from August 25), Cannon prohibited Trump from commenting on classified evidence.
Earlier in 2023, in a different case, Cannon closed jury selection to the public on the basis that the courtroom was too small, which according to some was a constitutional error. Trump's trial was scheduled for the same courtroom.
In November, it was reported that Mar-a-Lago staff, including the person who cleaned Trump's bedroom, may be called to testify.
2024
On February 6, 2024, Cannon ruled that witnesses' names could be made public, as the government had not explained its concerns related to "witness safety and intimidation". Two days later, the government asked her to reconsider. On April 9, Cannon ruled that witnesses in the case could remain private, reversing her prior decision. However, Cannon also did turn down a request seeking the sealing of substantive witness statements.
On February 12, Trump attended a hearing to determine whether prosecutors could withhold some classified evidence from the defense. The hearing was closed-door and in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF).