New Charges Unveiled Against Trump in Mar-a-Lago Documents Case
Former President Donald Trump is now facing additional charges related to the alleged storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Prosecutors announced the new charges on Thursday, accusing Trump of attempting to prevent investigators from reviewing security camera footage, The Washington Post reported.
With these latest charges, the total number of federal counts against Trump has reached 40.
According to the Post, the new charge is related to a conversation Trump allegedly had in July 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, concerning a secret military document concerning Iran.
The conversation was recorded and purportedly includes Trump stating, “As president, I could have declassified it. … Now I can’t, you know, but this is still secret.”
The new indictment also alleges that Trump and some of his associates tried to obstruct the FBI’s efforts to retrieve classified documents from Mar-a-Lago.
Two Trump aides, Waltine “Walt” Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, have now been charged. Nauta, Trump’s valet, was indicted in June, according to the Post.
Both Trump and Nauta pleaded not guilty to the charges in the initial indictment.
De Oliveira reportedly helped Nauta move boxes at Mar-a-Lago last summer and allegedly had conversations about security footage.
In response to the latest charges, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung criticized them as “a continued desperate and flailing attempt” to harass the former president and those around him, the Post reported.
The original indictment included 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information.
The three defendants now face charges of altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object and corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document or object. De Oliveira is additionally charged with lying to the FBI.
A trial date has been set for the case in May in the thick of the 2024 presidential primary.
Separately, special counsel Jack Smith’s team is investigating Trump’s actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election and in the lead-up to the Capitol incursion. Trump announced last week that he expects to be indicted in that case as well.
Trump is also facing criminal charges in New York for allegedly falsifying business records, with the trial scheduled for March.
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