Trump hit with additional charges

Justice Department via AP

A superseding indictment was just passed on by a grand jury in Florida. The revised indictment adds some additional charges to the case against former President Trump.

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Federal prosecutors on Thursday added major accusations to an indictment charging former President Donald J. Trump with mishandling classified documents after he left office, saying he told a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago that he wanted security camera footage there to be deleted.

The new accusations were revealed in a superseding indictment that named the maintenance worker, Carlos De Oliveria, as a new defendant in the case.

The new indictment also added three serious charges against Mr. Trump — attempting to “alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal evidence”; inducing someone else to do so; and a new count, the 32nd, under the Espionage Act stemming from a classified national security document he showed to visitors at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

So the allegation here is that Trump ordered De Oliveria to delete surveillance video. He allegedly told another Mar-a-Lago worker that was the case.

According to the indictment, De Oliveira told an unnamed Trump employee that “‘the boss’ wanted the server deleted.’”

“Trump Employee 4 responded that he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the rights to do that,” the indictment states. “Trump Employee 4 told De Oliveira that De Oliveira would have to reach out to another employee who was a supervisor of security for Trump’s business organization.”

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Previous reports have indicated that De Oliveira and another employee were caught on surveillance cameras moving boxes of documents around after Trump received a subpoena for them. That video showing them moving boxes around is likely why the boss wanted the server deleted.

De Oliveira was the maintenance worker who helped Nauta move boxes of classified documents around Mar-a-Lago after the Justice Department first subpoenaed Trump for classified documents last May.

CNN has previously reported that surveillance footage turned over to the Justice Department showed Nauta and De Oliveira, moving document boxes around the resort, including into a storage room just before Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran searched it for classified documents.

Justice Department officials came to Mar-a-Lago the day after Corcoran’s search, and Corcoran handed over 38 classified documents he had found. Yet the FBI retrieved more than 100 more classified documents when it searched Mar-a-Lago in August, both in the storage room and Trump’s office.

The Justice Department has subsequently said in court that it believes “government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room.”

So there you have it. Trump is reacting to the new indictment and calling it “election interference” and harassment.

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“It’s election interference at the highest level,” Trump told Fox News Digital just after he learned of the latest indictment. “They’re harassing my company, they’re harassing my family and by far, least importantly of all, they’re harassing me.”

Trump told Fox News Digital that “the charges are ridiculous, and they know it better than anyone.”

“This is prosecutorial misconduct used at a level never seen before,” Trump said. “If I weren’t leading Biden by a lot in numerous polls, and wasn’t going to be the Republican nominee, it wouldn’t be happening. It wouldn’t be happening.”

Trump added: “But I am way up as a Republican and way up in the general election and this is what you get.”

That’s all I have for now as this news is just breaking in the last few hours. I’m sure we’ll have more about this tomorrow.

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John Stossel 8:30 AM | December 22, 2024
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