Special counsel Jack Smith expanded his classified documents case against former President Donald Trump, making significant new allegations that Trump and his employees attempted to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage sought by the grand jury investigating the mishandling of the government records.
Here’s what to know about the new charges in the classified documents case:
Trump “requested” deletion of security footage: The indictment accuses Trump of being part of the effort to delete security footage from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, after it was subpoenaed, saying that Trump “requested” that a resort employee delete footage in order “to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.”
Trump’s alleged mishandling of an Iran attack: The new indictment brings the number of counts Trump faces for retaining national defense information to up 32, with prosecutors adding a new count to the 31 they previously brought for a classified document described by prosecutors as a top secret “presentation concerning military activity in a foreign country.”
Trump allegedly touted the document – which CNN previously reported related to Iran attack plans – in a taped July 2021 interview with biographers at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.
The new changes and details in the superseding indictment contradict Trump’s past denials about the document in question. Trump had previously denied that the document he discussed in the audio tapes was a government document, describing it instead as a news clipping.
A new defendant: The new court filings lay out the role Carlos De Oliveira allegedly played in an attempt by Trump aide Walt Nauta and the former president made to delete footage that was being sought by a grand jury subpoena. De Oliveira, 56, was also charged with making false statements in a January interview with the FBI when he was asked about the movement of boxes at the Florida resort.
Prosecutors describe the new defendant as Mar-a-Lago’s property manager who previously worked as a valet at the resort.
After the FBI executed a search warrant on Mar-a-Lago last August, Nauta discussed with an unidentified employee De Oliveira’s loyalty, according to prosecutors, and requested that the employee confirm De Oliveira’s loyalty in a group signal chat with a representative for Trump’s political action committee.
What happens next: De Oliveira is scheduled for an arraignment on the charges in Miami’s federal courthouse on Monday morning, set to take place before Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres.
It’s not yet clear how the new charges will affect the pace of the case against Trump and Nauta. Currently, the trial – which is slated to take place in Ft. Pierce, Florida, in front of US District Judge Aileen Cannon – is scheduled to start in late May 2024.
But even before the new charges were unveiled, it was possible for that trial date to be pushed further back.
Attorneys for De Olivera and Nauta have declined to comment.
Source: www.cnn.com