New Charges Filed Against Trump in Docs Case, Allegedly Told Staffer to Delete Camera Footage

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed three additional charges against former President Donald Trump on Thursday. The new superseding indictment alleges Trump and his aides asked a staffer to delete camera footage from Mar-a-Lago, presumably related to the movement of documents on the property.

“Trump has been charged with three new counts, including one additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts, related to alleged attempts to delete surveillance video footage at the Mar-a-Lago resort in summer 2022,” reported CNN on the new development.

Smith also charged a third defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, in the case, court documents revealed on Thursday. Trump, the former president and 2024 GOP frontrunner, was initially charged along with his longtime personal aide Walt Nauta on federal charges related to the retention and handling of classified documents.

“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,” added CNN.

De Oliveira’s name has been previously mentioned related to the case as surveillance footage in DOJ possession showed him “moving document boxes around the resort” ahead of Trump’s legal team’s search of Mar-a-Lago. The search resulted in Trump’s lawyers sending a certified letter to officials saying the former president had no more documents in his possession, which turned out to be false.

This is a developing story and has been updated.