Documents in Trump indictment were among nation’s most closely guarded

Top-secret documents were left on a ballroom stage for three months. Some of the nation’s most prized secrets spilled out of a box and were scattered across a floor. Others were stacked in a bathroom shower. An attack plan was waved in front of a writer.

The indictment against Donald Trump that was released on Friday offered shocking new details about how the former president and at least one staffer allegedly mishandled some of the nation’s most highly prized secrets. The fresh revelations will unsettle allied nations that share such classified information with the U.S.

The indictment, which outlines 37 counts including willful retention of defense information, shows through photos, witness testimony and other evidence how cavalierly Trump purportedly treated the papers he kept at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. It will doubtless be a galling list of offenses for former intelligence officers and others who, during their time in service, often could study such documents only in the confines of a secure room — often without mobile phones or any other electronics present.