Donald Trump has been charged with illegally keeping top secret files relating to America’s nuclear weapons and foreign allies after he left the White House.

He was also accused of keeping a Pentagon “plan of attack” against Iran and highly sensitive documents from the CIA and National Security Agency. Boxes of files were allegedly found at his Mar-a-Lago estate in locations including a bathroom, a shower, a ballroom and his bedroom.

Trump was also accused of showing classified documents to visitors to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The former President was on Friday charged with 37 counts over the documents.

According to the indictment, the documents included “information regarding the defence and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries”.

The US justice department said: “The unauthorised disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States.”

Trump will face seven charges including under the Espionage Act, and other counts including the unauthorised retention of classified documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The indictment of a former US President on federal charges is unprecedented in American history and comes as Trump remains the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

The 49-page indictment describes investigators seizing about 13,000 documents from Mar-a-Lago nearly a year ago. About 100 were marked as classified.

That meant the information in them was “releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance”. Britain is a part of the alliance, which also comprises the intelligence agencies of the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI, said: “It discourages even our closest allies. This makes them think twice before sharing their most sensitive information with us.

“The unmitigated recklessness of how our most sensitive information was handled is stratospheric. It’s off the charts. It’s absolutely a spy’s dream.”

Trump was accused of trying to “conceal his continued retention of classified documents” after a subpoena was issued requiring him to turn over “all documents with classification markings”.

He was accused of suggesting that his lawyer falsely tell the FBI that he did not have the documents, and directing his valet to move them so they would be hidden from his own lawyer and the FBI.

Trump was also accused of showing a “classified map related to a military operation” to a political associate.

He allegedly told the associate he should not be showing it to them, and that they “should not get too close”.

The indictment alleged that valet Walt Nauta, who has also been charged, moved about 64 boxes of documents, at Trump’s direction, from a storage room to the former President’s residence.

Trump is the first former President in US history to face charges brought by the government he once oversaw. He is preparing to appear in court in Miami on Tuesday.