Donald Trump Sought to Delete Security Footage in Mar-A-Lago Classified Docs Case: Grand Jury

Donald Trump was slammed with three fresh federal criminal charges on July 27. A third defendant was also added to the case in which the former president was already charged with dozens of felonies for keeping confidential materials at his Florida home after leaving the White House, per CNBC News.

Trump, the anticipated Republican presidential nominee in 2024, is charged in a new superseding indictment alongside his valet, Walt Nauta, with attempting to erase video evidence at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, during the summer of 2022. Federal officials were requesting the return of government records that they suspected Trump was housing at his club at that time in 2022, per The Hill.

With the latest accusations, Trump now faces 40 criminal counts in the investigation, which was first filed by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith in early June. “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,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “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.”

Trump is also accused of keeping a classified paper outlining the United States' military strategy for an attack on Iran, which he revealed to a writer, publisher, and two staff members at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club on July 21, 2021. Trump had not yet been president for six months at the time, and his guests “did not have security clearances” to examine the document, according to the superseding indictment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Carlos de Oliveira, the third defendant added to Trump and Nauta's Mar-a-Lago case, is the head of maintenance at the club. According to the superseding indictment, de Oliveira allegedly told another Mar-a-Lago employee that “the boss” wanted to remove a server storing security tape revealing how Trump's boxes were moved around at the club.

The new charge document also names de Oliveira as the individual who assisted Nauta in moving approximately 30 boxes from Trump's property to a storage facility. He also allegedly told the FBI that he was not engaged in the movement of documents sought by officials, telling agents, “Never saw anything.” De Oliveira, 56, was charged on Thursday with obstructing justice, modifying, destroying, mutilating, and making false statements. The false statements charge stems from de Oliveira's voluntary interview with FBI investigators in January. 

The additional obstruction charges stem from Trump, Nauta, and de Oliveira allegedly attempting to erase Mar-a-Lago security camera footage sought by a federal grand jury in June 2022. The most serious charges leveled against Trump entail a maximum jail sentence of 20 years.

Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, allegedly kept hundreds of federal documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office and took steps to keep them hidden from U.S. officials requesting their return.

References:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/27/third-defendant-added-to-trump-classified-documents-case.html

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4123941-trump-charged-with-trying-to-delete-mar-a-lago-surveillance-footage-in-new-indictment/