Potential Charges Against Trump Outlined in Model Prosecution Memo

A model prosecution memo that was released Friday by a team of several leading former prosecutors and defense attorneys says the Department of Justice (DOJ) is likely justified to charge Donald Trump with crimes over his refusal to turn over classified documents he stands accused of illegally removing from the White House in 2021.

The 186-page memo—published in New York University Law School's Just Security blog—offers a full picture of possible evidence and arguments the DOJ might deploy in a potential case against the former president over his mishandling of government documents, which Trump has alluded to doing so in numerous public statements he's made since FBI agents retrieved a small trove of classified documents in a raid on his Mar-a-Lago home last August. Trump, meanwhile, has maintained his innocence in the case.

Friday's memo also outlines potential charges the government could bring against Trump on accusations of interfering with the federal investigation into those alleged crimes, spanning from obstruction of justice and criminal contempt to making false statements to investigators. Those charges would stem from Trump's alleged efforts to encourage his legal counsel to try and hide the existence of the documents a day before federal agents and a prosecutor came to serve a subpoena to retrieve them.

Federal prosecutors—who typically don't publicize their prosecution memos prior to filing charges—could potentially have additional evidence that is not available to the public, including an alleged recording of a July 2021 meeting in which Trump acknowledges holding onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran.

The audio recording prosecutors are reported to have recently obtained was recorded at Trump's golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.

During a meeting with people who were helping to write the autobiography of former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, the former president is said to have brought up that he was in possession of a classified document while discussing media reports at the time that detailed how his Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley talked Trump down from attacking Iran in the final few days of his presidency.

Trump is alleged to have discussed how he had the secret Pentagon paper and said that if he was allowed to show it to those at the meeting—who did not have security clearance to view classified materials—that it would undermine what Milley was saying.

The audio was recorded by Trump aide Margo Martin, who regularly taped conversations the former president had with authors to ensure his comments were reported accurately.

Even without the privileged evidence, the attorneys say in the memo, there is likely already enough publicly available information to indict the former president on at least six charges, more than the DOJ would typically require in similar cases not involving a former president.

"The Department's own precedent makes clear that charging Trump would be to treat him comparably to others who engaged in similar criminal behavior, often with far fewer aggravating factors than the former president," they wrote. "Based on the publicly available information to date, a powerful case exists for charging Trump under the federal criminal statutes discussed in this memorandum."

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's attorneys in the case for comment.

The memo comes as many speculate special counsel Jack Smith—who is overseeing the case—will imminently announce charges against the former president, the second-such indictment facing him after charges were filed against Trump in an unrelated fraud case earlier this year.

Meanwhile, after urging Congress to intervene in the case, Trump's legal team has been marred by suspicions of leaks and the shuffling of key members of his defense team.

Last month, Tim Parlatore, one of Trump's main attorneys in the classified documents case, resigned, citing "personal reasons" for his departure in an interview with Politico.