Trump indicted.

Former president Donald Trump announced Thursday evening that he had been indicted in federal court in Florida over the classified information found at his Mar-a-Lago home. 

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Trump is charged under a part of the Espionage Act that bars willful retention of national defense information by someone not authorized to have it, according to people familiar with the case. Such information is defined as “any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.” Technically, that information does not have to be classified, but in practice the law is almost exclusively used to prosecute retention of classified material.

A conviction does not require any evidence of a desire to disseminate the classified information; having it in an unauthorized location is enough. But the crime requires a “willful” mishandling of material “the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.” Charges are generally not brought without some aggravating factor making clear the retention was not accidental — such as evidence of intent to share the information, signs of disloyalty to the U.S. government, or simply the amount of documents taken.

Do we think Trump has provided enough signs of disloyalty to the US government?

Obstruction of justice: Trump is also charged [with] obstruction of justice for his alleged efforts to stymie the federal investigation, according to people familiar with the charges. People familiar with the investigation say the government gathered evidence that Trump directed his aides to hide classified papers in advance of an FBI search and told advisers and lawyers to falsely assert that all classified documents in his possession had been returned to the federal government.

False statements: Jim Trusty, an attorney for Trump, said on CNN that the former president is also accused of making false statements to federal investigators. It is unclear so far what those particular statements are. Publicly, Trump has suggested without evidence that FBI agents planted classified evidence at his home and claimed that anything sensitive found there had been declassified.

Grinding slowly.