This has been CNBC's live blog covering the federal indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has become the first U.S. president, former or otherwise, to be indicted on federal criminal charges.
The 37-count indictment against him was made public Friday afternoon, a day after Trump was charged in the case in U.S. District Court in Miami.
"Today, an indictment was unsealed charging Donald J. Trump with felony violations of our national security laws as well as participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice," special counsel Jack Smith said in brief remarks Friday. "I invite everyone to read it in full to understand the scope and the gravity of the crimes charged."
Follow our live Tuesday coverage of Donald Trump's indictment and arraignment in the classified documents case.
He added: "The men and women of the United States intelligence community and our Armed Forces dedicate their lives to protecting our nation and its people."
Thirty-one counts charge that Trump willfully retained national defense information, a violation of the Espionage Act. The other six allege that Trump caused false statements to be made, concealed documents from investigators, obstructed justice and allegedly conspired to do these things.
Trump, the leading contender for the GOP presidential nomination next year, is scheduled to appear Tuesday at a federal courthouse in Miami. He is still set to hold a previously scheduled birthday eve fundraiser in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Tuesday night, the Trump campaign confirmed to NBC News.
Trump had kept reams of classified documents in boxes at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida until federal agents raided it last year and seized the records.
The ex-president said he's innocent and ripped the case as a hoax.
Trump attorney Jim Trusty, appearing on NBC on Friday morning, said Trump is ready for a battle. "He's a fighter, and he's going to come out swinging, and he'll be fine," Trusty said. "He's not afraid of this thing." Hours later, in a shocking turn of events, Trusty and another attorney on the team, John Rowley, resigned from the case.
Smith said he would seek a "speedy" trial for Trump. The special counsel has been investigating Trump over the removal of classified documents from the White House after he left office, as well as apparent efforts by Trump and his aides to potentially stymie the government's investigation.
This is the second time Trump has been indicted. Earlier this year, a grand jury in New York indicted Trump on state charges for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to women who said they had sexual trysts with him.
Trump still faces two other criminal probes, as well: Smith's investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol, and an inquiry in Georgia looking into whether he attempted to interfere with the presidential election in that state.
Key posts:
–CNBC's Chelsey Cox, Rohan Goswami and Amanda Macias also contributed to this live blog.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said the federal charges against Trump are "quite serious and cannot be casually dismissed."
"Mishandling classified documents is a federal crime because it can expose national secrets, as well as the sources and methods they were obtained through," she said in a statement, NBC reported.
"Anyone found guilty – whether an analyst, a former president, or another elected or appointed official – should face the same set of consequences."
Murkowski was one of just a handful of Republicans to vote to convict Trump in the 2021 Senate impeachment trial over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
— Kevin Breuninger
The top two Democrats in Congress responded to the federal indictment of former President Donald Trump with a statement that was notable more for what it did not say than for what it did.
"No one is above the law — including Donald Trump. This indictment must now play out through the legal process, without any outside political or ideological interference," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, said in a formal statement. "We encourage Mr. Trump's supporters and critics alike to let this case proceed peacefully in court."
Coming from someone like Schumer, who regularly described Trump's presidential actions as "disgusting, dishonorable, and disqualifying for high office," this statement was surprisingly soft.
Yet the absence of any typical political battle rhetoric from leading Democrats may also hint at how serious they believe the case against Trump to be. If Trump is already facing an existential threat to his political career in the form of the 37-count indictment, Democrats don't need to pile on.
— Christina Wilkie
Special counsel Jack Smith's indictment provides "overwhelming" evidence in support of the serious charges leveled against Trump, according to multiple legal experts.
"It is an extremely damning indictment," said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who testified in Trump's defense during the first impeachment effort against him in 2019.
"It's overwhelming in details. And the Trump team should not fool itself, these are hits below the water line," Turley said on Fox News. "This is not an indictment that you can dismiss."
Norm Eisen, senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, was even more blunt in his assessment.
"Trump will very likely be convicted," Eisen concluded after reading the indictment.
Eisen tweeted that the alleged mishandling of the documents, put on full display in the indictment through pictures showing boxes stacked in a bathroom and overturned in a storage room, was "crazy" and "incredibly dangerous."
— Kevin Breuninger
Former President Donald Trump is under indictment for several federal crimes, but he still golfed earlier Friday morning with Florida Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez, according to a tweet posted on the congressman's official account.
A smiling Trump wore a "Make America Great Again" hat and gave a thumbs-up alongside Gimenez.
— Amanda Macias
Special counsel Jack Smith stressed the seriousness of the crimes alleged against Trump as he announced the unprecedented federal indictment against the former president.
"This indictment was voted by a grand jury of citizens in the Southern District of Florida. And I invite everyone to read it in full to understand the scope and the gravity of the crimes charged," Smith said in a brief statement delivered from a lectern to reporters at a Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C.
Smith, who has rarely been photographed since being tapped in November to lead two criminal probes into Trump, spoke for less than three minutes. He took no questions.
"Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced. Violations of those laws put our country at risk," Smith said.
"We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone," he said. "Applying those laws, collecting facts, that's what determines the outcome of an investigation, nothing more and nothing less."
Smith noted that Trump is innocent until proven guilty. And he said his office will "seek a speedy trial in this matter, consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused."
— Kevin Breuninger
The U.S. Secret Service said it will ensure Trump's safety during his upcoming arraignment in Miami federal court. But the agency said it "will not seek any special accommodations outside of what would be required" to guarantee the former president's continued safety.
"As with any site visited by a protectee, the Secret Service is in constant coordination with the necessary entities to ensure protective requirements are met," Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement tweeted Friday afternoon.
"We have the utmost confidence in the professionalism and commitment to security shared by our law enforcement partners in Florida," Guglielmi said.
As a former president, Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, are entitled to lifetime protection from the Secret Service.
— Kevin Breuninger
Former President Donald Trump on Friday falsely claimed there was nothing wrong with keeping hundreds of classified documents that he took from the White House in 2021 and hiding them for over a year as government officials sought their return.
Trump's post on his social media platform, Truth Social, came after a 37-count federal indictment against Trump was unsealed. It accused the former president and his personal aide of illegally keeping hundreds of pages of classified material.
"I supplied them openly, and without question, security tape from Mar-a-Lago. I had nothing to hide, nor do I now," Trump wrote. This appears to be a reference to security footage mentioned in the 49-page indictment that showed the aide, Walt Nauta, moving dozens of boxes of papers back and forth from storage areas to Trump's residence at his Palm Beach club.
"Nobody said I wasn't allowed to look at the personal records that I brought with me from the White House. There's nothing wrong with that," Trump said. This statement appears to be in response to two events mentioned in the indictment, where Trump showed classified material to people who were visiting his office.
Trump also falsely claimed that "Under the Presidential Records Act, I'm allowed to do all this."
On the contrary, the Presidential Records Act explicitly states that the moment a president ceases to hold the office, all the records of their presidency belong to the National Archives and Records Administration, not to the individual.
— Christina Wilkie
John Bolton, who once served as Donald Trump's national security advisor in the White House, called on him to withdraw from the presidential race.
"Criminal charges are piling up around him," Bolton wrote in a tweet. "If Trump truly stood for America First policies, he would support the rule of law instead of continually flouting it."
Bolton didn't leave his position on good terms. Trump said he fired Bolton after a little over a year in his administration, saying he "disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions." Bolton, who is said to be considering a run for president himself, said he offered to resign.
— Michele Luhn
City and county police departments in Miami say they are preparing for Trump's appearance in federal court next week.
"The City of Miami Police Department will work cohesively with our local, state, and federal partners to provide any assistance needed in the form of personnel, resources, detours, and/or road closures," Chief of Police Manuel Morales said in a statement.
"We're committed to protecting everyone's first amendment right and will continue to serve our residents, business owners, and visitors while maintaining the safety of our community," Morales said.
A spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department said they have not yet received any requests for federal support in advance of Trump's scheduled arraignment Tuesday.
"Along with our partners at the City of Miami Police Department, we are prepared to provide any assistance, support and resources that may be needed," Angel Rodriguez, the Miami-Dade spokesman, said in a statement.
Trump's arrest and arraignment in a separate criminal case in Manhattan in April spurred a media frenzy, with a crush of sardine-packed reporters, photographers and other onlookers corralled outside that city's criminal courthouse.
— Kevin Breuninger
Photos of boxes of government documents that former President Donald Trump took with him when he left the White House in 2021 show that some of the records, hundreds of which were later revealed to be classified, were stored in a marble bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, according to the Justice Department's indictment.
Some were stacked on the stage of a ballroom at the Florida resort, and others were stacked in several storage rooms and a closet, according to DOJ photos.
Trump has long insisted that any classified documents he had were inadvertently removed from the White House and were then stored under lock and key. But the evidence laid out in the 49-page indictment against Trump and his personal aide, Walt Nauta, suggests that this was not the case.
According to the 49-page indictment, hundreds of classified documents — which were in among the rest of the papers — contained information about the "defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack."
— Christina Wilkie
A congressional aide with knowledge of the matter and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told NBC News that the nation's highest intelligence agency has not yet provided lawmakers with an assessment of the potential national security risks caused by former President Donald Trump's mishandling of classified documents.
"We'd like to know what damage, if any, was created by the improper storage of these documents. That's what we're waiting on next," said Rubio, who is also the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, regarding the trove of intelligence documents discovered at Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago.
A congressional aide said a damage assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, has not been completed and that it was unclear what the timeline would be.
Last year, Avril Haines, who leads ODNI, told lawmakers that her office would lead a damage assessment into the Mar-a-Lago documents.
— Amanda Macias
Prosecutors anticipate their felony trial against Trump will take 21 days to complete, the indictment says.
If the parties only appear in court during weekdays, that means the trial could last at least a month, if not longer.
— Kevin Breuninger
If former President Donald Trump were to be convicted of the crimes that he was charged with on Thursday, he could be facing potentially decades behind bars, according to sentencing guidelines assembled by NBC News.
To be clear, the guidelines only lay out the maximum sentence, and many factors, both aggravating and mitigating, can influence a judge's sentencing decision. It is also unlikely that Trump, even if he was convicted, would serve his sentences consecutively, which means each sentence is added on top of the others.
If not served consecutively, then the sentence would be served concurrently, meaning less total time behind bars.
But nonetheless, the numbers are daunting.
Trump was charged with 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information, a violation of the Espionage Act. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Trump was also charged with several crimes related to misleading investigators and his own lawyers about which documents he had. These include one count of false statements and representations, with a maximum sentence of five years, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, with a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Other counts were related to the alleged concealment of documents.
One count was for allegedly withholding a document or record, with a maximum sentence of 20 years, one of corruptly concealing a document or record, also carrying a 20-year maximum, and a third count of concealing a document in a federal investigation, which carries a separate 20-year maximum.
The final count was for allegedly participating in a scheme to conceal, with a maximum sentence of five years.
— Christina Wilkie
Trump's aide and alleged co-conspirator Walt Nauta found several boxes of White House documents — including a record marked "SECRET" — that had spilled their contents onto the floor of a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, according to the indictment.
"On December 7, 2021, NAUTA found several of TRUMP's boxes fallen and their contents spilled onto the floor of the Storage Room, including a document marked 'SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY,' which denoted that the information in the document was releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States," the indictment alleged.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
— Kevin Breuninger
Trump showed classified documents to other people on two separate occasions in 2021 after leaving the presidency, the federal criminal indictment against him alleges.
The first alleged instance was in July of that year, when Trump showed a "plan of attack" that he said was prepared for him by the Pentagon to a writer, a publisher and two members of his staff, none of whom were cleared to view the records.
Trump said the plan was "highly confidential" and "secret," adding, "as president I could have declassified it" but "now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret," according to the indictment.
The second alleged instance was in August or September of 2021. Trump showed a representative of his political action committee "a classified map related to a military operation," the indictment alleges.
Trump allegedly "told the representative that he should not be showing it" to them, and that they "should not get too close."
Both alleged instances took place at Trump's club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
— Kevin Breuninger
A 49-page indictment against former President Donald Trump alleging the mishandling of classified information has been unsealed.
The indictment contains 37 criminal counts against Trump and 38 counts against a Trump personal aide, Walt Nauta.
Of the 37 counts against Trump, 31 of them charge that Trump willfully retained national defense information, a violation of the Espionage Act. The other six allege Trump caused false statements to be made, concealed documents from investigators, obstructed justice and allegedly conspired to do these things.
The indictment also alleges Trump showed people classified documents on at least two occasions.
Read the whole indictment below.
— Christina Wilkie
A fundraising effort for former President Donald Trump is advertising the sale of T-shirts that have "I Stand With Trump" and Friday's date printed on them.
"These brand-new shirts are flying off the shelves, but because we know you're one of the President's biggest supporters, we're holding one just for YOU until MIDNIGHT TONIGHT," according to the website selling the T-shirt.
In a separate email advertising the merchandise, the fundraising committee wrote:
Patriot,
June 8, 2023 will forever go down as a dark day in American history.
History books will record it as the day the Biden Administration unlawfully INDICTED the ONE and ONLY candidate beating Joe Biden in the polls.
It will be remembered as the day our Free Republic transformed into a Third World Marxist regime run by unelected bureaucrats.
But YOU can show these left-wing radicals that their vicious assault on our Republic not only failed – it BACKFIRED.
You can show the nation that, during these dark times, you chose to stand up for justice, you chose to STAND with President Trump!
The T-shirt is selling for $47, an aspirational symbol since Trump would be the 47th president were he elected next year.
— Amanda Macias
President Joe Biden, asked in North Carolina about Trump's indictment by pool reporters, said, "I have no comment at all."
A White House spokeswoman repeated that the administration had no comment and stressed that the DOJ "runs its criminal investigations independently."
Biden has several good reasons to avoid weighing in on Trump's legal problems, as CNBC's Christina Wilkie pointed out earlier, including the fact that he's facing his own special counsel investigation over classified documents.
— Michele Luhn
Former Vice President Mike Pence lamented the federal indictment of his former boss, calling it a "sad day in America" and accusing the Justice Department of acting politically against Trump, even as he reiterated that "no one is above the law."
"I had hoped it wouldn't come to this," Pence, one of the latest Republicans to jump into the 2024 presidential race, said at a campaign stop in New Hampshire.
"I hoped the Department of Justice would see its way clear to resolve these issues with the former president without moving forward with charges. And I am deeply troubled to see this indictment move forward, believing it will only further divide our nation at a time that American families are facing real hardship at home and real peril abroad," Pence said.
Pence kicked off his long-shot White House bid this week by coming out swinging against Trump, the current front-runner. Once close allies, Pence and Trump clashed after the then-vice president refused to help Trump try to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
Pence noted in Friday's remarks, "the handling of classified materials of the United States is a serious matter," referencing the classified records that were found at his own residence in Indiana. The DOJ recently closed its probe into that matter without filing charges.
Pence also reiterated his call for Attorney General Merrick Garland to unseal Trump's indictment before the end of the day. "Once the facts and the laws are explained and revealed in full to the American people we can all make our own judgment," he said.
— Kevin Breuninger
Federal Judge Aileen Cannon of the Southern District of Florida, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2020, has been assigned to initially oversee the federal classified documents case against Trump, NBC News has confirmed.
Trump is scheduled to appear in federal district court in Miami on Tuesday to face charges stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House.
Cannon first came to national attention in a related legal matter last fall, when Trump sued the Justice Department demanding the return of hundreds of classified materials that were seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate, documents Trump claimed were his property.
In a surprise ruling, Cannon granted Trump's request for an outside examiner, called a special master, to independently review thousands of pages of seized records, ostensibly to check if any were covered by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.
Cannon also barred the government from using the documents, while they were under review by the special master, to help prosecutors build a case against the former president.
The Justice Department appealed Cannon's special master ruling to an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with prosecutors and overruled Cannon.
It was unclear Friday whether Cannon had been randomly assigned to Trump's new case, or whether the court considered Trump's lawsuit last fall to be "related" to his prosecution this summer, and assigned Cannon automatically in an effort to prevent overlap.
It's also uncertain whether Cannon would remain the judge in the case.
— Christina Wilkie