Donald Trump accused of ordering staffer to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage after ‘illegally stashing secret docs’
DONALD Trump allegedly asked a staffer to delete camera footage at Mar-A-Lago following claims he illegally stashed hundreds of secret documents at the estate.
The former president is accused of mishandling classified docs at his Florida home and is set to face trial in May next year – just months before the 2024 presidential election.
Trump was hit with new charges on Thursday in an updated grand jury indictment.
The frontrunner for the GOP 2024 nomination could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if he’s found guilty of obstruction related to the security camera footage.
A spokesperson for the ex-president has branded the new charges as “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration “to harass President Trump and those around him” and to influence the 2024 presidential race.
Trump is already facing a slew of charges related to the classified docs probe and pled not guilty in Miami last month.
A new defendant has been added to the fresh indictment which emerged overnight.
Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at the Florida estate, is accused of helping Trump’s aide Walt Nauta move boxes with classified documents in them and lying to the FBI about them.
Trump and Nauta were initially charged last month.
Prosecutors claimed Nauta and De Oliveira met in June 2022 and went to a booth where surveillance footage is displayed on monitors.
They are accused of walking through a tunnel where a storage room was found and pointed out security cameras.
Days after the meeting, De Oliveira allegedly told a staffer “‘the boss’ wanted the server deleted,” referring to the camera footage, the indictment claims.
He allegedly asked the worker: “What are we going to do?”
Investigators say they later found surveillance footage of De Oliveira and Nauta moving around boxes of documents at Mar-a-Lago.
De Oliveira and Nauta’s alleged crimes happened shortly before Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran searched the property in August 2022.
He handed over 38 classified documents to the FBI the following day, but investigators later found more than 100 additional secret files during their search of Trump’s estate.
Trump was initially subpoenaed for the classified documents in May 2022.
The former president, who is already facing 37 federal counts in the classified documents case, was handed an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction charges.
De Oliveira has been summoned to appear at a federal court in Miami on July 31.
Trump allegedly retained hundreds of files on nuclear weapons, foreign militaries, and CIA operations — as well as showing them to guests at his golf club.
The Republican will face a two-week court case on federal charges in the middle of next year’s presidential election campaign.
The former president’s lawyers had requested the trial be held after the election.
Florida judge Eileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, has set a jury trial for May 20, 2024.
Trump has previously blasted the charges as a “travesty of justice” and claimed his treatment was reminiscent of “Stalinist Russia and communist China.”
He was charged with 31 counts of willful retention of classified documents, as well as the following:
- one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice
- one count of withholding a document or record
- one count of corruptly concealing a document or record
- one count of concealing a document in a federal investigation
- one count of scheme to conceal
- one count of making false statements and representations
Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, also faces six charges, with one count each of:
- conspiracy to obstruct justice
- withholding a document or record
- corruptly concealing a document or record
- concealing a document in a federal investigation
- scheme to conceal
- making false statements and representations
Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty.
Another trial, over alleged “hush money” paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels, is also set for a New York court next March.
Trump is still the Republican frontrunner after increasing his polling lead over rivals Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence.