Trump hit with new charges in classified documents case, third defendant added

Former President Donald Trump was hit Thursday night with three new criminal charges in addition to the ones he already faced related to his retaining classified documents at his Florida residence after leaving the White House.

Trump is accused in a new superseding indictment with his valet, Walt Nauta, of an attempt to delete video surveillance foot at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida during the summer of 2022, when federal officials were seeking the return of government records they suspected of being kept at that location.

Also Thursday, a third defendant was added to the case against Trump and Nauta, as part of the new indictment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The new defendant, Carlos de Oliveira, reportedly is a worker at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

The new charges against Trump include an additional count of willful retention of national defense information, and two new counts of obstruction against him and Nauta.

De Oliveira, 56, was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, altering destroying, mutilating a document, and false statements.

Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, stored hundreds of government documents at Mar-a-Lago after he left office, and according to prosecutors took steps to keep them hidden from U.S. officials seeking their return.

Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty in the case, which is being prosecuted by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith.

John Irving, a lawyer for De Oliveira, declined to comment on the case, according to NBC News. De Oliveira has been ordered to appear in Miami federal court on Monday for his first hearing in the case.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for Smith, said in a statement, “Today, a superseding indictment was returned by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida that adds one defendant and four charges to the prior indictment filed against Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta.”

Smith separately is overseeing a criminal investigation of Trump related to his efforts to undo his 2020 electoral loss to President Joe Biden. The special counsel last week informed Trump that he is a target in that probe, a notification that typically occurs before the target is charged in a case.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung in a statement Thursday evening, said, “This is 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.”

“Deranged Jack Smith knows that they have no case and is casting about for any way to salvage their illegal witch hunt and to get someone other than Donald Trump to run against Crooked Joe Biden,” Cheung said.

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