July 27, 2023

Another Indictment! Trump Told Aides to Delete Security Footage in Coverup Attempt

Amid the wait for January 6 charges, Jack Smith filed new charges in Florida.

Mother Jones; Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty

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Former President Donald Trump told a maintenance worker at his Mar-a-Lago club to “delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury,” a new indictment charges.

The new superseding indictment filed Thursday by special counsel Jack Smith in Florida says that on June 27, 2022, a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, Carlos De Oliveira, told another employee, who is not named: “The boss” wanted a server containing the footage deleted. The alleged exchange came a few days after Trump’s lawyers received a grand jury subpoena seeking the footage.

The former president apparently hoped to hide video efforts to conceal boxes of classified documents that he ordered be removed from the White House when he left office. Trump refused repeated federal efforts, including a subpoena, to retrieve those materials and allegedly lied to his own lawyers in an effort to conceal his actions from federal investigators. 

The new indictment hits Trump with three new criminal charges: two obstruction of justice charges, for “attempting to alter, destroy, mutilate or conceal evidence,” and inducing someone else to do so. He was also hit with another new count of violating the Espionage Act by showing classified material to visitors who lacked security clearances. That is on top of the 31 criminal counts Trump already faces in the case.

The indictment also charges De Oliveira, who was not previously a defendant, and adds new charges charges against Trump’s “body man,” Walt Nauta, who was charged alongside Trump in June.

The charges came as Trump was bracing to be indicted by Smith in a separate case. Trump’s lawyers met Thursday about expected federal criminal charges in Washington related to Trump’s efforts to subvert his 2020 election defeat. Trump confirmed reports of the meeting in a post on his Truth Social site. He said his lawyers received “no indication” of whether he will be charged in that case, and claimed they told Justice Department lawyers that “I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers and that an indictment of me would only further destroy our country.”

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