Trump faces more charges in classified documents
case as second aide named
Prosecutors bring additional charges against former
president as Mar-a-Lago worker Carlos De Oliveira named as third defendant
Hugo Lowell
and Maanvi Singh
Fri 28 Jul
2023 01.56 BST
Federal
prosecutors on Thursday expanded the indictment against Donald Trump for
retaining national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts
to retrieve them, unveiling new charges against him and an employee over an
attempt to destroy surveillance footage.
The new
charges – filed by the special counsel Jack Smith in Florida – were outlined in
a superseding indictment that named Mar-a-Lago club maintenance worker Carlos
De Oliveira as the third co-defendant in the case. Trump’s valet Walt Nauta was
previously indicted for obstruction with the former president last month.
Trump’s
legal exposure in the classified documents case grew after he was accused of
attempting to destroy evidence and inducing someone else to destroy evidence,
as well as an additional count under the Espionage Act for retaining a
classified document about US plans to attack Iran that he discussed on tape at
his Bedminster club in New Jersey.
The
expanded indictment added a new section titled “The Attempt to Delete Security
Camera Footage” that alleged in detail how Trump engaged in a scheme with Nauta
and De Oliveira to wipe a server containing surveillance footage that
prosecutors subpoenaed which showed boxes of classified documents being removed
from the storage room.
According
to the indictment, Trump seemingly instructed Nauta to unexpectedly travel to
Mar-a-Lago to have the tapes destroyed. Nauta then enlisted the help of De
Oliveira, and they walked to a security booth where the camera angles were
displayed on monitors before walking down to the cameras and pointing them out
with flashlights.
The
following week, De Oliveira asked the director of IT at Mar-a-Lago, described
as “Trump Employee 4” but understood to be Yuscil Taveras, how long
surveillance footage was stored for and then told him “the boss” wanted the
server deleted.
When the
director of IT replied that he did not know how to delete the server and
suggested De Oliveira ask the security supervisor at the Trump Organization, De
Olivera again insisted that “the boss” wanted the server deleted, the
indictment said.
De
Oliveira’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For months,
prosecutors in the office of the special counsel have viewed the surveillance
footage at Mar-a-Lago as key to the case because it showed Nauta removing boxes
of classified documents out of the storage room just before Trump’s lawyer was
scheduled to search for any classified documents after receiving a subpoena.
The close
detail about the scheme to delete the server added to the evidence of Trump’s
alleged efforts to obstruct the criminal investigation by concealing classified
documents from that Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran.
Trump asked
Corcoran something to the effect of “What happens if we just don’t respond at
all?” and “Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything
here?”, according to Corcoran’s notes that prosecutors obtained during the
investigation.
Ordinarily
off limits to prosecutors, the notes came before the Washington grand jury
hearing evidence in the case after a US appeals court pierced the
attorney-client privilege Trump would otherwise have and ordered Corcoran to
turn them over.
Corcoran
then told Trump that he would return on 2 June 2022 to look in the Mar-a-Lago
storage room for documents. In the intervening period, the indictment said,
Trump instructed Nauta to remove boxes containing classified documents from
where Corcoran intended to search.
Corcoran
recounted in his notes that Trump also made a “funny motion” when they were
discussing whether Corcoran should take the 38 documents back with him to his
hotel. As Corcoran described it, Trump seemed to indicate he should “pluck” any
documents that were “bad”, without saying it explicitly.
The former
president faces more than three dozen total charges in the case, including more
than 30 violations of the Espionage Act. His trial is set for May 2024, at the
end of the Republican presidential primary contest in which Trump is currently
the frontrunner.
A Trump
spokesperson said the new charges were “nothing more than a continued desperate
and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration “to harass President Trump
and those around him”.
The case is
one of many compounding legal troubles that Trump faces as he vies for the Oval
Office again. He faces possible additional indictments in Washington over his
role in the January 6 insurrection and in Georgia over his efforts to overturn
the results of the 2020 presidential election. In April, he was charged with 34
felony counts related to a hush-money scheme involving the adult film star
Stormy Daniels. In May, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and
defaming writer E Jean Carroll.
In Fulton
county, Georgia, a decision is expected shortly from prosecutor Fani Willis on
whether to charge Trump over a phone call in which he attempted to push
Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” him enough votes to win the 2020
election.
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