WASHINGTON – Former U.S. President Donald Trump is facing new charges in a case involving alleged illegal possession of classified documents. Prosecutors have accused Trump of obstructing a federal investigation by requesting a staffer to delete surveillance camera footage at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The updated indictment includes new counts of obstruction and willful retention of national defense information. These charges add further details to the indictment issued last month against Trump and one of his close aides. The surprising addition of charges comes amid growing speculation over a possible additional indictment in Washington related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The updated indictment underscores the extent of legal exposure faced by Trump as he seeks to return to the White House in 2024 while simultaneously confronting criminal cases in multiple cities.
The recent allegations focus on surveillance footage at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump is alleged to have asked for the footage to be deleted when FBI and Justice Department investigators visited in June 2022 to collect classified documents that he took with him after leaving the White House a year earlier. Surveillance cameras captured footage of Trump valet Nauta moving boxes of documents in and out of a storage room, including actions taken just one day before the FBI and Justice Department officials’ visit. Nauta, who was indicted alongside Trump, faces charges of lying to the FBI and conspiring with the former president to conceal the records.
According to the indictment, between June and August 2022, Trump, Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira corruptly altered, destroyed, mutilated, and concealed documents at Mar-a-Lago with the intention to impair their use in any official proceeding. The indictment further alleges that all three men asked an unidentified Trump employee to delete the security footage captured at the club to prevent it from being provided to a federal grand jury.
De Oliveira’s involvement in the obstruction has also been added to the indictment. He is charged with obstruction and false statements related to an interview he gave to the FBI earlier in the year.
In response to the new charges, a Trump spokesperson dismissed them as desperate and flailing attempts by the Biden administration to harass the former president and those associated with him. The spokesperson also suggested the charges were aimed at influencing the 2024 presidential race.
The superseding indictment also includes an additional count of willfully retaining national defense information against Trump. This charge is related to a July 2021 interview at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, during which he discussed U.S. military plans to attack another country with his onetime chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Trump returned the document, marked as top secret and not approved for showing to foreign nationals, to the federal government on January 17, 2022.
Both Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The updated indictment signals a shift in the prosecution’s approach, charging Trump not only for failing to return a highly sensitive document when asked but also for retaining it after leaving office, knowing its significance.