By Chelsea Bailey
Boxes of allegedly containing classified documents stacked in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago. Photo: AFP
Six pictures released as part of the indictment against Donald Trump show cardboard boxes of documents stacked in rooms across his Mar-a-Lago estate.
The former president allegedly put boxes of classified material in a shower, a bathroom, a ballroom and his bedroom.
The 49-page document accuses Trump of illegally holding on to files with details of US nuclear weapons programmes, the potential vulnerabilities of the US and its allies and US plans for retaliatory military attacks.
Boxes stored on a stage in a Mar-a-Lago ballroom. Photo: AFP
The first picture shows boxes containing classified materials were stored on a stage in the White and Gold ballroom, where events and gathering took place.
The boxes were said to have been there from January to March 2021, when they were eventually moved to the business centre in Mar-a-Lago.
In one of the most striking images, boxes allegedly containing classified documents appeared to be tucked between a toilet and a shower in a gilded bathroom.
These boxes were moved to the bathroom in April 2021, according to the charging document. Later, Trump directed that a storage room on the ground floor be cleaned out so that it could be used to store his boxes, and they moved there in June.
At one point, the storage room was filled with more than 80 boxes, as seen in the two photographs below.
More boxes were kept in a storage room. Photo: AFP
Stacked boxes at Mar-a-Lago. Photo: AFP
A later picture shows papers spilling from a box that appears to have fallen over in the storage room.
Trump's aide, Walt Nauta, who is also charged in the indictment, allegedly texted the picture to another Trump employee, saying: "I opened the door and found this."
The Trump employee, who was not named, is said to have replied: "Oh no oh no."
Documents spilling from a box in the storage room at Mar-a-Lago. Photo: AFP
One of the documents is said to be part of count eight against Trump, which relates to a document dated 4 October 2019, "concerning military capabilities of a foreign country".
The final picture included in the charges shows dozens of boxes stacked to the ceiling. According to the indictment, an employee had showed the photograph to Donald Trump "so that Trump could see how many of his boxes were stored in the storage room".
- BBC