US prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents have broadened their criminal case against the former president, and charged a second aide with helping him evade officials.
On Thursday, special counsel Jack Smith charged Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, with conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements, and destroying documents.
Smith also brought three new felony charges against Trump, including an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts, according to court documents.
Prosecutors allege that De Oliveira and another Trump employee, Walt Nauta, worked to “delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury”.
De Oliveira was also charged with lying to the FBI in January, when he allegedly denied helping move boxes. Previously, the special counsel’s office had charged Nauta with conspiracy to obstruct the government’s repeated attempts to retrieve classified documents that Trump allegedly held on to after leaving office.
In surveillance footage, De Oliveira was seen moving boxes into a storage room at Mar-a-Lago in the days after a grand jury subpoenaed Trump for any remaining classified documents he had in his possession.
De Oliveira’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump was charged last month over his retention of national security documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. A Trump spokesperson said the new charges were “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration “to harass President Trump and those around him”.
The former president faces more than three dozen total charges in the case, including more than 30 violations of the Espionage Act. His trial is set for May 2024, at the end of the Republican presidential primary contest in which Trump is currently the frontrunner.
The case is one of many compounding legal troubles that Trump faces as he vies for the Oval office again. He faces possible additional indictment in Washington over his role in the January 6 insurrection, and in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In April, he was charged with 34 felony counts related to a hush-money scheme involving the adult film star Stormy Daniels. In May, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E Jean Carroll.
English (US)