Smith special counsel investigation significant person Donald Trump
An ongoing special counsel investigation was opened by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on November 18, 2022, to continue two investigations initiated by the Justice Department (DOJ) regarding former U.S. President Donald Trump. Garland appointed Jack Smith, a longtime federal prosecutor, to lead the independent investigations. Smith was tasked with investigating Trump's role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Trump's mishandling of government records, including classified documents.
Smith moved quickly to advance his investigations, assembling a team of at least twenty DOJ prosecutors, and called witnesses for grand jury testimony, issued subpoenas to election officials in multiple states and asked a federal judge to hold Trump in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena. 
On June 8, 2023, a grand jury in Miami indicted Trump on 37 felony counts, including charges of willful retention of national security material, obstruction of justice and conspiracy, relating to his removal and retention of presidential materials from the White House after his presidency ended. Thirty-one of the counts fell under the Espionage Act. On June 13, 2023, Trump was arraigned in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where he pleaded not guilty to all 37 charges.December
By December, local officials in Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada and Pennsylvania had also been subpoenaed. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was issued a grand jury subpoena in December. During a  January 2021 recorded phone call, Trump had pressured Raffensperger to "find" sufficient votes needed to secure his victory in the state.CNN reported in December 2022 that Smith began investigating Trump's state of mind and what he knew about efforts by many to overturn the 2020 presidential election he had lost. He called key Trump White House personnel to testify before a grand jury, including White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy Patrick Philbin, Trump senior policy advisor Stephen Miller and three other close aides to the president. 
Smith's grand jury investigated fundraising and disbursements by Trump's Save America PAC, which had been created days after the November 2020 election. In late 2022, subpoenas were sent to Rudy Giuliani about payments he received from the PAC, and to other witnesses close to Trump. By February 2023, numerous Save America PAC vendors had been subpoenaed to determine how they had been paid and whether they delivered genuine services or concealed who had actually been paid.On December 11, 2022, former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara predicted that the DOJ would bring charges in January. He noted that Smith had been hiring people who had "left their former positions, both in government and private practice", suggesting a major legal action in the works.Indictments
Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 8, 2023 on charges stemming from the Smith special counsel investigation. The 37-felony-count indictment was filed in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida, based in Miami. Charges included  illegal retention of government secrets, obstruction of justice, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct. Trump's arraignment, as well a brief arrest and booking, took place on June 13 at the federal courthouse in Miami.Trump aide Walt Nauta, his White House valet, was also indicted on June 8, 2023. As conditions for his release, Trump was barred from speaking with Nauta and discussing the case with witnesses. Nauta was arraigned on July 6.