Former US President Donald Trump is facing fresh charges alleging that he attempted to obstruct an investigation into mishandling top-secret documents.
Former US president Donald Trump faced fresh charges Thursday alleging that he attempted to obstruct the investigation into the mishandling of top-secret documents by conspiring to delete surveillance footage at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
Federal prosecutors unsealed the new indictment targeting the front-runner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, who is set to go on trial as the election heats up in May of next year.
The new charges came the same day Trump said his lawyers met with Justice Department officials ahead of a separate expected indictment over his alleged efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election.
The twice-impeached former president was first indicted in the classified documents case last month, accused of endangering national security by holding on to top secret nuclear and defense information after leaving the White House.
Trump kept the files — which included records from the Pentagon, CIA and National Security Agency — unsecured at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and thwarted official efforts to retrieve them, according to the indictment.
Thursday’s superseding indictment accuses the billionaire of acting with his co-defendant in the case, personal aide Waltine “Walt” Nauta, and a new defendant, property manager Carlos de Oliveira, to delete security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago.
The fresh charges add to the existing counts of “willful retention of national defense information” and charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements and other offenses to which Trump pleaded not guilty last month.
The new indictment recounts a conversation between de Oliveira and a fourth, unnamed employee in which de Oliveira says “the boss” wants the server deleted.
It also adds an extra count under the Espionage Act related to Trump allegedly retaining a classified document “concerning military activity in a foreign country.”
According to the indictment, citing an audio recording of the interaction, Trump in 2021 allegedly told visitors of his New Jersey golf club of the defense document, “‘As president I could have declassified it,’ and ‘Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.'”
Marie de La Roche Saint-André, with AFP
