MAKING THE CASE

To take Donald Trump to trial, bringing charges over his handling of classified documents is only the first challenge

- BRIAN BENNETT

RINGING HISTORIC FEDERAL CHARGES against Donald Trump was just the start. The challenge for Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, as he prepares to argue in court that the former President illegally took national-defense secrets to his Florida home and defied efforts to get them back, is to make the charges stick.

The 37-count indictment, handed down by a Miami grand jury on June 8, uses photographs, text messages, and the words of Trump's own lawyer to allege he stored some of the United States' most closely held secrets including information about its nuclear programs, defense vulnerabilities, and attack plans in a Mar-a-Lago Club ballroom, a bathroom and shower, his bedroom, an office, and a storage room, and then allegedly obstructed federal officials seeking their return. The charges that Trump denied at his arraignment in a Miami courtroom five days later included not only "willful retention of national defense information," but also conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing documents from a federal investigation, and making false statements.