The choice to indict former President Donald J. Trump in Miami, fairly than Washington, eradicated the chance of a doubtlessly thorny struggle over the place the fees ought to have been filed, however created a distinct danger totally: that the case would find yourself earlier than a Trump-friendly decide, Aileen M. Cannon.

Indeed, the unsealing of the indictment on Friday confirmed that Judge Cannon, who final fall issued a sequence of rulings unusually favorable to Mr. Trump in a lawsuit he introduced at an earlier stage of the investigation, had been assigned the case.

For months, prosecutors had used a grand jury within the nation’s capital to query witnesses and listen to proof earlier than abruptly bringing an indictment within the Southern District of Florida.

Because Mr. Trump was holding the paperwork at Mar-a-Lago, his personal membership and residence in Florida, it was not clear that Washington can be the correct venue to cost crimes like unauthorized retention of nationwide safety paperwork and obstruction.

In federal legislation, “venue” refers back to the correct place to carry a trial: Prosecutors can not select any federal courthouse within the nation, however fairly should cost a defendant in a district that has a adequate reference to the occasions that gave rise to the matter.

There was some connection to Washington. The National Archives and Records Administration, the authorized custodian of White House information after a president leaves workplace, is predicated there, as is the grand jury the Justice Department used to acquire a subpoena in 2022 requiring Mr. Trump to return all paperwork marked as labeled in his possession.

And there would have been some benefits to prosecutors to bringing a case in Washington. For one factor, that’s the place the staff engaged on the investigation lives and works. For one other, it could have ensured that the case stayed away from Judge Cannon.

But bringing the case in Washington would have given Mr. Trump’s protection staff an argument for having the fees thrown out for being within the improper venue. Dennis M. Fitzpatrick, a former prosecutor who dealt with nationwide safety instances in Virginia, famous that Mr. Trump’s personal actions beneath investigation seem to have occurred in Florida fairly than Washington.

Not solely have been the paperwork improperly saved at Mar-a-Lago, however investigators have additionally tried to find out whether or not Mr. Trump had sought to have the information at his property moved or hid after the Justice Department issued a subpoena for his or her return.

The recognized expenses didn’t clarify the place the false statements are suspected to have taken place, but when it was in Florida, that will even be the suitable place to cost them, former prosecutors stated.

“When a prosecutor thinks he has a strong case, the objective becomes protecting the legal case by taking legal issues off the table,” Mr. Fitzpatrick stated. “Venue in D.C. would have been a legal fight.”

The choice to indict Mr. Trump in Florida additionally means prosecutors may lose the benefit of placing a case in entrance of a doubtlessly extra liberal Washington jury. (Mr. Trump acquired 4 p.c of the vote within the District of Columbia within the presidential election of 2016, and 5 p.c in 2020.)

Juries in Washington have swiftly convicted rioters egged on by Mr. Trump within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol. Although there have been doubts about whether or not prosecutors would win advanced instances charging members of the far-right teams the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys with seditious conspiracy, a legislation not often examined, Washington juries haven’t acquitted a single Jan. 6 defendant.

In Florida, which is extra conservative, the jury pool may very well be far completely different. To convict Mr. Trump of against the law, the 12-member panel should be unanimous.

Brandon L. Van Grack, a former federal prosecutor who additionally labored on advanced instances involving nationwide safety and labeled materials, wrote in a legal publication final 12 months that there have been many causes to deliver the case to Washington, together with the variety of judges there who’re extra acquainted with dealing with instances involving labeled info and the Espionage Act, and a jury pool in Washington that “appears to be less deferential toward” Mr. Trump.

But in an interview earlier than the project to Judge Cannon grew to become public, Mr. Van Grack stated Jack Smith, the particular counsel, will need to have believed that there was actual authorized danger in bringing a case in Washington and that bringing the case in Florida can be extra prudent.

“There is a constitutional right to be charged in the location where the crime occurred and Jack Smith took a cold, hard look at the facts and determined that venue was appropriate in Florida,” Mr. Van Grack stated.