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   From: nowomr@protonmail.com   
      
   Prosecutors ready to ask for Trump indictment on obstruction and Espionage   
   Act charges   
      
   The Independent has learned that prosecutors are prepared to ask grand   
   jurors to vote on charges as early as Thursday   
      
   The Department of Justice is preparing to ask a Washington, DC grand jury   
   to indict former president Donald Trump for violating the Espionage Act   
   and for obstruction of justice as soon as Thursday, adding further weight   
   to the legal baggage facing Mr Trump as he campaigns for his party’s   
   nomination in next year’s presidential election.   
      
   The Independent has learned that prosecutors are ready to ask grand jurors   
   to approve an indictment against Mr Trump for violating a portion of the   
   US criminal code known as Section 793, which prohibits “gathering,   
   transmitting or losing” any “information respecting the national defence”.   
      
   The use of Section 793, which does not make reference to classified   
   information, is understood to be a strategic decision by prosecutors that   
   has been made to short-circuit Mr Trump’s ability to claim that he used   
   his authority as president to declassify documents he removed from the   
   White House and kept at his Palm Beach, Florida property long after his   
   term expired on 20 January 2021.   
      
   That section of US criminal law is written in a way that could encompass   
   Mr Trump’s conduct even if he was authorised to possess the information as   
   president because it states that anyone who “lawfully having possession   
   of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document   
   ...relating to the national defence,” and “willfully communicates,   
   delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or   
   transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be   
   communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled   
   to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on   
   demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive   
   it” can be punished by as many as 10 years in prison.   
      
   It is understood that prosecutors intend to ask grand jurors to vote on   
   the indictment on Thursday, but that vote could be delayed as much as a   
   week until the next meeting of the grand jury to allow for a complete   
   presentation of evidence, or to allow investigators to gather more   
   evidence for presentation if necessary.   
      
      
   A separate grand jury that is meeting in Florida has also been hearing   
   evidence in the documents investigation. That grand jury was empaneled in   
   part to overcome legal issues posed by the fact that some of the crimes   
   allegedly committed by Mr Trump took place in that jurisdiction, not in   
   Washington. Under federal law, prosecutors must bring charges against   
   federal defendants in the jurisdiction where the crimes took place.   
      
   Even if grand jurors vote to return an indictment against the ex-president   
   this week, it is likely that those charges would remain sealed until both   
   the Washington and Florida grand juries complete their work.   
      
   Another source familiar with the matter has said Mr Trump’s team was   
   recently informed that he is a “target” of the Justice Department probe,   
   which began in early 2022 after National Archives and Records   
   Administration officials discovered more than 100 documents bearing   
   classification markings in a set of 15 boxes of Trump administration   
   records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago, the century-old mansion turned private   
   beach club where Mr Trump maintains his primary residence and post-   
   presidential office.   
      
   Over the course of the last year, grand jurors have heard testimony from   
   numerous associates of the ex-president, including nearly every employee   
   of Mar-a-Lago, former administration officials who worked in Mr Trump’s   
   post-presidential office and for his political operation, and former high-   
   ranking administration officials such as his final White House chief of   
   staff, Mark Meadows.   
   
Mark Meadows is said to be cooperating with the investigations into his   
   former boss
   
      
   Mark Meadows is said to be cooperating with the investigations into his   
   former boss   
   (EPA-EFE)   
      
   Mr Meadows has already given evidence before the grand jury and is said to   
   be cooperating with the investigations into his former boss. It is   
   understood that the former North Carolina congressman testified as part of   
   a deal for which he has already received limited immunity in exchange for   
   his testimony.   
      
   A source who was briefed on the agreement claimed that the alleged   
   agreement will involve the ex-chief of staff entering pleas of guilty to   
   unspecified federal crimes but an attorney for Mr Meadows, George   
   Terwilliger, denied that to The Independent. Mr Terwilliger said that the   
   idea that his client would enter any guilty pleas was “complete bulls***”   
   but did not address the matter of immunity in a brief telephone   
   conversation with this reporter.   
      
   It is not yet known whether the testimony or the charges in question   
   relate to the documents probe, or a separate investigation into the   
   January 6 attack on the Capitol. Both investigations are being overseen by   
   a Department of Justice special prosecutor, Jack Smith. According to ABC   
   News, Mr Meadows has given evidence in both the documents matter and the   
   January 6 investigation.   
      
   In the documents matter, prosecutors are also prepared to ask grand jurors   
   to indict Mr Trump on charges that he obstructed justice during the year-   
   long investigation and caused false statements to be made to investigators   
   by persons working for him.   
      
   It is possible that such charges could stem from a declaration submitted   
   to federal investigators roughly a year ago, when FBI agents and   
   prosecutors visited his home to retrieve a sealed folder filled with 38   
   classified documents which Mr Trump’s attorneys turned over in response to   
   a grand jury subpoena. If so, those charges could come in federal court in   
   Florida, rather than in Washington.   
      
   According to court documents, the government subsequently developed   
   evidence indicating that documents had been removed from a storage room   
   where his attorneys had stated that all such documents were being stored   
   in the days following the receipt of the grand jury subpoena.   
      
   Using that evidence, which reportedly includes surveillance footage taken   
   by cameras placed in the interior of Mar-a-Lago, prosecutors obtained a   
   search warrant for the property that was carried out by FBI agents on 8   
   August last year.   
      
      
      
   https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-   
   indictment-espionage-prosecution-charges-b2353397.html   
      
   During that search, special agents discovered 103 documents bearing   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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