Special counsel Jack Smith has filed three additional felony charges against former President Donald Trump, including allegations that he sought to delete security camera footage at his Mar-a-Lago club, as investigators probed his handling of classified documents.
In a recently revealed 60-page superseding indictment, Trump is accused of sharing a highly classified war plan with individuals lacking security clearances after his presidency had ended. Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago worker, has also been named as a third defendant, allegedly collaborating with Trump and aide Walt Nauta in an attempt to destroy the security footage.
The new charges include two counts of obstruction of justice related to the alleged erasure of security camera video and a felony count under the Espionage Act for possessing the war plan. This brings the total number of charges to 32 for willfully retaining national defense information under the Espionage Act and eight counts for alleged efforts to obstruct the investigation.
According to the indictment, De Oliveira reportedly met with a Trump Organization employee on June 27, 2022, and requested the deletion of the security camera footage, claiming that “the boss” wanted it done. The employee refused, stating they lacked the necessary rights, and informed De Oliveira that a supervisor would need to be involved. De Oliveira then reached out to Nauta, with whom he had a phone and text conversation, before meeting in person near Mar-a-Lago. Trump later called De Oliveira, though the content of the call remains undisclosed.
De Oliveira is set to be arraigned on Monday in Miami federal court, while Trump and Nauta will also need to be re-arraigned on the updated indictment. This new indictment aims not only to add criminal charges but also to counter Trump’s public denials of the case and demonstrate the depth of prosecutors’ investigation into his inner circle.
In a separate investigation, Special counsel Jack Smith’s team is potentially close to indicting Trump in Washington, D.C., for alleged efforts to undermine the 2020 election results. Furthermore, Trump is facing criminal charges in Manhattan related to falsifying business records as part of a hush money scheme.
The latest indictment sheds more light on Trump’s alleged handling of the classified war plan, which is believed to involve a plan of attack on Iran. Trump reportedly shared the plan with two individuals working on a book by his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, at his Bedminster club on July 21, 2021. The new indictment specifies that Trump also had the classified document at his Mar-a-Lago estate, but it doesn’t provide details on how it reached either location.
The obstruction-of-justice charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison each, while the charge of willfully retaining national defense secrets is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Although the new charges may not significantly impact Trump’s overall sentence if convicted, they are likely to reinforce the narrative that prosecutors can present to a jury and the public.
