Five revelations from new Trump charges

(The Hill) — Federal prosecutors’ superseding indictment against former President Trump in his classified documents case on Thursday has brought to light several new charges and revelations.

Trump now faces a total of 40 criminal counts in the case — three more than he did previously — after prosecutors added allegations that Trump pushed to delete surveillance footage at Mar-a-Lago and willfully retained an additional sensitive document.

Here are five revelations from the new court filings.

Trump is accused of seeking to delete footage

Prosecutors laid out a new set of allegations that Trump acted with two aides in attempts to delete surveillance footage at Mar-a-Lago after prosecutors subpoenaed it in June 2022 in connection with their investigation.

The subpoena required Trump’s business to produce surveillance footage from areas near the storage room and other locations within the Florida estate for a period of roughly six months. Prosecutors last month brought charges related to allegations that boxes of classified materials were at times moved in and out of the storage room.

After they issued the subpoena, prosecutors claim Trump sought to meet with Walt Nauta, the former president’s body man and co-defendant in the case.

Nauta then suddenly changed his plans and traveled to Mar-a-Lago from Trump’s Bedminster, N.J., club the next day, where he attempted to delete footage with another employee, according to court filings.

Trump faces two new obstruction charges in connection with the allegations.

Prosecutors name new co-defendant

The superseding indictment added a third defendant to the case: Carlos De Oliveira, the property manager of the hotel.

De Oliveira, 56, was the other employee who allegedly aided Nauta in their attempt to delete the footage.

He faces three charges, including the two obstruction counts prosecutors have newly brought against Trump. 

De Oliveira also faces an additional charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice, a charge that were already brought against both the former president and Nauta.

‘The boss’ wanted it done

The indictment alleges De Oliveira extensively pushed Mar-a-Lago’s director of information technology (IT) — who was not charged or named in the indictment — to delete the footage.

As Nauta prepared to head to Florida on a Friday evening, both he and De Oliveira sent text messages to the technology expert suggesting they may need his assistance, according to the indictment. Court filings indicate Nauta traveled to Mar-a-Lago the following day.

On Monday morning, De Oliveira purportedly asked the IT director to have a private conversation. 

He also allegedly asked how long the security footage was stored, to which the IT director answered 45 days. The IT director was then told “the boss” wanted the server deleted, but he said he did not know how to do it.

“What are we going to do?” De Oliveria allegedly insisted.

The indictment went on to describe the efforts De Oliveira and Nauta took to organize their plans secretly, apparently walking among the bushes around the IT office where the security footage was managed.

At another point De Oliveira and Nauta purportedly “walked with a flashlight through the tunnel where the storage room was located, and observed and pointed out security cameras.”

Trump faces new charge over alleged Iran war plan presentation

Prosecutors also brought another charge against Trump unrelated to the security footage revelations.

The superseding indictment adds a 32nd count of willfully retaining national defense information, one more than previously. 

The new Espionage Act charge corresponds to a record Trump allegedly described in a July 2021 meeting with a book author and publisher at his New Jersey club. Portions of the transcript were included in the original indictment, and CNN published an audio recording late last month.

The document in question is reportedly a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran. Trump had previously said he may not have had a physical document with him at the time.

“I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him,” Trump says in the recording, referring to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley. “They presented me this — this is off the record but — they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”

Prosecutors say new charges shouldn’t affect trial date

Prosecutors in a separate court document filed on Thursday evening stressed that the new charges and co-defendant shouldn’t delay the scheduled May 20, 2024 trial date.

“[T]he Special Counsel’s Office is taking steps related to discovery and security clearances to ensure that it does not do so,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.

Among the promised measures, prosecutors insisted they would “promptly” produce materials related to the new co-defendant and the new charges and would immediately arrange for De Oliveira’s lawyer to begin the security clearance process.

The parties in the case have previously battled over the trial date, with Trump’s lawyers seeking a more relaxed schedule.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case, last week rejected the former president’s legal team’s request to indefinitely delay the matter, but the schedule is months later than prosecutors’ trial date request.

Trump’s legal team could attempt to bump back the trial date with various pre-trial motions, a move that would push the trial closer to — or after — the 2024 presidential election.