Former President Donald Trump is facing additional charges in the Justice Department’s classified documents at Mar-a-Largo investigation.
The additional charges include obstruction and willful retention of national defense information, according to The Associated Press. These charges were added Thursday to the indictment by the Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s team.
Trump trial date set for May 2024 in classified documents case
Trump is facing accusations that he and his aides asked a staffer to delete camera footage at Mar-a-Lago to obstruct the investigation into the classified documents, the AP reported.
A spokesperson for Trump in a statement obtained by CNN called the charges “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him.”
Third defendant added to Mar-a-Lago classified documents case
A new defendant, identified as Carlos De Oliveira, was also added to the case, according to the AP.
New charges were also filed against Walt Nauta, according to the Washington Post.
Trump indictment: What we know now about the charges he faces
Nauta, Trump’s valet and right-hand man, was named as a co-conspirator in the unsealed indictment. It alleges that Nauta, a military veteran, made false statements during an FBI interview about the documents stored at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Nauta also faces six charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding records, concealing documents and making false statements. According to the indictment, Trump directed Nauta to move boxes that were part of the investigation from a storage room and to conceal the documents from Trump’s attorney, from the grand jury and from the government.
Trump aide Walt Nauta pleads not guilty in classified documents case
All three – Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira – are now charged with altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object, according to the Washington Post. They are also charged with a similar crime of corruptly altering destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document or object.
