historic day and another historic first for donald trump. mere weeks after becoming the first former president charged on state felony offenses, he s now also the first to be charged with the federal kind, specifically 37 counts connected to retaining, mishandling, moving, concealing government documents, some of them highly classified. the indictment also details allegations of two occasions he shared highly sensitive material with people not cleared to see it. he s also accused of hiding documents from his own attorneys and conspiring to obstruct government efforts to get them back. just a short time ago we got our first read on how long the government expects it will take to make its case in court against donald trump according to a court document filed along with the document, the estimate that jack smith, the special counsel s team is making, is 21 business days. that s about a month. that does not include how long the defense might want to make their case. all in all a stunning d
to the espionage act because of their potential threat to national security and the penalties, if convicted, can be severe, the indictment alleges trump knew he wasn t supposed to have classified materials but he stashed them carelessly throughout his florida property and they obstructed government efforts to get them back. we have more now from cnn s molly zinona in washington. republicans have been racing to defend donald trump even before the indictment was unsealed. speaker kevin mccarthy on thursday put out a statement calling the charges unconscionable. saying this is a dark day for america, and vowing accountability for the department of justice. whether that s in the form of investigating the investigators, or potentially targeting doj and upcoming spending bills. but, kevin mccarthy still has yet to address the substance of the charges, including the fact that donald trump allegedly refused to turn over classified documents, and obstructed justice. take a listen to what else
and that they believe donald trump not only retained sensitive documents that he was not supposed to have in the first place, but why he also obstructed government efforts to recover those documents when the fbi and the justice department asked for them back. now, these documents, the first 31 counts of this 37-count indictment deal with what is called retention of national defense information. in the case of donald trump and the box of documents found at mar-a-lago that includes information about u.s. nuclear programs, defense and weapons capabilities, potential vulnerabilities that the u.s. has to a foreign attack and how they might respond should they be attacked. so this information came from multiple intelligence agencies. and as you said in the intro, it contains some of the most sensitive secrets and the most highly guarded secrets that our country has. now the other thing that they re trying to highlight in this indictment is where trump kept these documents at mar-a-lago. as y
that s less that china is under the microscope and the globe, something that china absolutely loves about this situation. the united states is facing pressure over detained wall street journal reporter evan gershkovich, sitting in a russian president ahead of his espionage trial. secretary of state antony blinken says this. in evan s case, we are working through the determination on wrongful detention. it s something we re working through very deliberately, but expeditiously as well. in my own mind, there s no doubt that he s being wrongfully detained by russia. just a little housekeeping here, congressman. i do understand they need that wrongful detention determination to rev up government efforts to get him home. that s a process that they must go through. i believe fully that antony
continues. federal investigators have gathered new and significant evidence that after the subpoena was delivered, trump looked through the contents of some of the boxes of documents in his home, apparently out of a desire to keep certain things in his possession investigators now suspect based on witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence that boxes included classified material were removed from a mar-a-lago storage area after the subpoena was served and that trump personally examined at least some of those boxes. the new details highlight the degree in which special counsel jack smith s investigation is focusing on whether the former president took or directed actions to impede government efforts for the sensitive