Former President Donald Trump had new charges added to his indictment for allegedly mishandling classified documents, with the new charges centering on attempts to destroy security camera footage from Mar-a-Lago.
The alleged scheme to destroy evidence requested by the Justice Department earned Trump three new charges, bringing his total to 40, along with getting Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at the Mar-a-Lago club, indicted. In the superseding indictment filed on Thursday, one alleged attempt to destroy evidence was not mentioned.
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CNN reported that in October 2022, an employee at Mar-a-Lago drained the resort’s swimming pool, flooding the room where servers for the security camera footage were held. The report says it is unknown if the room being flooded was intentional or an accident. At least one witness has been asked about the situation.
The pool incident is not referenced in the lengthy indictment, but the report from CNN suggests prosecutors have been asking about the alleged flooding. The report also states that prosecutors have heard testimony that the equipment in the room was not damaged in the flood.
According to the indictment, De Oliveira did allegedly tell one employee that “the boss” wanted the security footage to be destroyed.
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De Oliveira was charged with one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice, one count of altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object, one count of corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, record, or other object, and a count of false statements and representations.
The new charges against the former president come as he is widely expected to be indicted by a grand jury in Washington, D.C., on charges related to his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump is also under a grand jury investigation in Georgia for his actions following the 2020 election.
