By Jacqueline Thomsen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump and two of his employees are facing new charges in the criminal case over the retention of sensitive government records at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump now faces 40 charges in the case, after originally being indicted on 37 counts last month. His valet, Walt Nauta, is also facing new charges, and prosecutors have added a third defendant and another Trump employee, Carlos De Oliveira, to the criminal case. Here’s a look at the new charges.
DELETING SECURITY FOOTAGE
The new indictment charges Trump, his co-defendant and valet Nauta and a third Trump employee, De Oliveira, with attempting to delete security footage at Mar-a-Lago after they were sent a grand jury subpoena for the videos in June 2022.
Prosecutors allege that De Oliveira told another employee that “the boss” wanted a server containing security footage to be deleted. After the employee said they did not know how and believed they didn’t have the right to, De Oliveira allegedly asked, “what are we going to do?”
The indictment claims that Trump called De Oliveira before and after the incident, and that Nauta and De Oliveira were also in touch.
Prosecutors have charged Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira with obstruction over the attempt to delete the footage. The indictment also adds De Oliveira to an existing obstruction charge, claiming he conspired with Trump and Nauta to hide sensitive government documents.
FALSE STATEMENTS
Prosecutors have also charged De Oliveira with making false statements and representations in a voluntary FBI interview in January 2023.
De Oliveira told the FBI that he did not help move boxes at Mar-a-Lago. “Never saw nothing,” he said, despite having personally helped to move the boxes when they arrived at Mar-a-Lago in January 2021, according to the indictment.
UNLAWFUL RETENTION
The new indictment alleges Trump retained one more document containing national defense information than was listed in the original charges.
That document appears to be one that was described in the original indictment, in an incident where Trump bragged about a “plan of attack” against another country in an interview at his New Jersey golf resort. The former president then presented the document in the exchange with a writer, publisher and two Trump staffers who all lacked security clearances.
Trump is now charged with 32 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information.
(Reporting by Jacqueline Thomsen in Washington; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
