Special Counsel Jack Smith on Thursday brought new charges against former President Donald Trump in the Mar-a-Lago White House documents case.
Smith charged Trump with one count of willful retention of national defense documents and two counts of obstruction.
Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, who was previously charged in the first indictment, also received two new obstruction-related charges.
The superseding indictment also charged Carlos De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s head of maintenance, with altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
“The superseding indictment also charges Trump, De Oliveira, and Nauta with two new obstruction counts based on allegations that the defendants attempted to delete surveillance video footage at The Mar-a-Lago Club in summer 2022,” a statement from the special counsel’s spokesman Peter Carr said.
As CNBC reported:
Trump is also newly accused of retaining a classified document detailing a U.S. military plan of attack on Iran, which Trump showed to a writer, publisher and two staff members at his club in Bedminster, N.J., on July 21, 2021.
At the time, Trump had not been president for five months, and his guests “did not have security clearances” to view the document, according to the superseding indictment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
With the additional charges, Trump is now facing 40 counts in the criminal case.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung blasted the U.S. Department of Justice for the new charges, calling it 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 added.
Judge Aileen Cannon set a trial in this case for next May, just months before the 2024 presidential election.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.
