The DOJ’s indictment includes photos of classified documents found at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence.
DOJ
Donald Trump was hit Thursday night with three recent federal criminal charges, and a 3rd defendant was added to the case where the previous president already was accused of dozens of felonies related to retaining classified documents at his Florida residence after leaving the White House.
Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, is charged in a recent superseding indictment together with his valet, Walt Nauta, over an alleged try to delete video surveillance footage at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, through the summer of 2022.
At the moment, when federal officials were in search of the return of presidency records they suspected of being kept at that location.
Trump can be newly accused of retaining a classified document detailing a U.S. military plan of attack on Iran, which Trump showed to a author, publisher and two staff members at his club in Bedminster, N.J., on July 21, 2021.
On the time, Trump had not been president for five months, and his guests “didn’t have security clearances” to view the document, in keeping with the superseding indictment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Carlos de Oliveira, the third defendant added to the case against Trump and Nauta, is head of maintenance at Mar-a-Lago.
De Oliveira allegedly told one other Mar-a-Lago worker that “the boss” desired to delete a server containing surveillance footage, in keeping with the superseding indictment.
He also allegedly told the FBI he was not involved in moving documents that officials sought, telling agents, “Never saw anything.”
Recent charges
Former U.S. President Trump appears on classified document charges after a federal indictment at Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. United States Courthouse, alongside his attorney Chris Kise in Miami, Florida, U.S., June 13, 2023 in a courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
The brand new charges against Trump include an extra count of willful retention of national defense information and two recent counts of obstruction against each him and Nauta.
With the brand new charges, Trump now faces 40 criminal counts within the case, which was first lodged in early June by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith.
De Oliveira, 56, was charged Thursday with conspiracy to obstruct justice, altering destroying, mutilating a document, and false statements.
The false statements charge pertains to the voluntary interview De Oliveira gave FBI agents in January.
Trump, who’s in search of the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, stored tons of of presidency documents at Mar-a-Lago after he left office, and in keeping with prosecutors took steps to maintain them hidden from U.S. officials in search of their return.
Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty within the case. A trial within the case has been scheduled for May, just months before the overall election.
John Irving, a lawyer for de Oliveira, declined to comment, in keeping with NBC News.
What’s next?
De Oliveira has been ordered to seem in Miami federal court on Monday for his first hearing within the case.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Smith, said in an announcement, “Today, a superseding indictment was returned by a grand jury within the Southern District of Florida that adds one defendant and 4 charges to the prior indictment filed against Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta.”
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung slammed the Justice Department over the brand new charges. “That is nothing greater than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and people around him,” he said in an announcement.
“Deranged Jack Smith knows that they don’t have any case and is casting about for any method to salvage their illegal witch hunt and to get someone aside from Donald Trump to run against Crooked Joe Biden,” Cheung said.
Smith individually is overseeing a criminal investigation of Trump related to his efforts to undo his 2020 electoral loss to President Joe Biden. The special counsel last week informed Trump that he’s a goal in that probe, a notification that typically occurs before the goal is charged in a case.
A grand jury that has been hearing testimony and reviewing evidence in that case in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., ended a session Thursday afternoon without issuing an indictment.
Trump faces other legal issues. In spring, a Manhattan grand jury charged him with falsifying business documents related to a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. In Georgia, meanwhile, an area district attorney is probing the previous president over his try to overturn his 2020 electoral loss in that state.