 "Donald Trump")
Donald Trump was hit with new obstruction charges in the criminal case over his handling of classified documents, including allegations that he and two employees attempted to delete surveillance video footage at his Mar-a-Lago estate last year.
In the latest indictment announced, prosecutors accused Trump of directing employees to erase footage of a storage room where the documents were kept, days after his lawyers received a subpoena for any such recordings. In addition to Trump’s personal valet, Waltine “Walt” Nauta, the new charges added a third defendant to the criminal case, Trump maintenance worker Carlos de Oliveira. De Oliveira referred Trump as the “boss” and allegedly told employees that “the boss” wanted a server with camera footage deleted. It wasn’t clear if those recordings were actually erased.
It includes one additional count accusing Trump of willful retention of national defense information, referring to a “plan of attack” document he showed and described in a meeting at his Bedminister Golf Club in New Jersey.
In a recording quoted, Trump allegedly jokes with the people around him about how he could have declassified the document when he was president, but “Now I can’t.”
Prosecutors secured the latest indictment against Trump as other members of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office pressed ahead with a separate investigation into efforts by Trump and others to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump had recently announced he had received notice that he was a target in that probe. He has pleaded not guilty in the Florida case and faces a trial on May 20.
