A revised indictment in the case involving the classified materials claims that former President Donald Trump tried to erase Mar-a-Lago security footage.
In a superseding indictment, Justice Department prosecutors claim that Trump directed a staff member to erase security camera footage to thwart a federal investigation into the secret materials he carried from the White House to his Florida home.
New counts of obstruction as well as willful retention of national defence records are included in the indictment that was made public on Thursday. The Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira is listed as a third defendant.
De Oliveira is charged with conspiring to conceal video evidence from investigators with Trump and his valet Walt Nauta, who has already been charged.
The latest accusations were described by the Trump campaign as “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him.”
The campaign claimed that “Deranged Jack Smith knows they have no case” and “is looking for any way to salvage their illegal witch hunt and to get someone other than Donald Trump to run against Crooked Joe Biden.”
In June 2022, De Oliveira allegedly invited another Mar-a-Lago employee to a “audio closet” and instructed them that the talk could not be disclosed with anyone else, according to the new indictment from Special Counsel Smith’s office.
The employee claimed that De Oliveira asked how many days’ worth of surveillance footage were on the server and then told that “the boss” wanted it deleted, apparently referring to Trump.
De Oliveira is accused of saying the “boss” demanded it be done and, “What are we going to do?” after the employee expressed doubt that he could execute the request.
Trump is also accused of allegedly presenting a document about military activity in another nation to a writer and publisher of a memoir for his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, which is connected to the new offence of deliberately retaining national defence information. In July 2021, the gathering took place at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
To criminal allegations in the investigation into sensitive documents, Trump and Nauta have entered a not guilty plea. The trial date, set for May by US District Judge Aileen Cannon, may change if a third defendant in the case is found. Trump’s legal team has said that a fair trial won’t be granted to him until after the 2024 presidential race.
The revised indictment was released at a time when attention was largely on Trump’s legal team’s Thursday meeting with prosecutors. Trump denied a claim that Smith’s probe into his and his associates’ attempts to rig the 2020 election would result in an indictment being given to his lawyers.