By Emmanuel Nduka
Former US President Donald Trump, has further been indicted by more information unsealed by the US Justice Department.
The indictment lists multiple new counts against Trump, including: altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object; and corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing a document, record or other object; and an additional charge of willful retention of national defense information.
Earlier Charges
Heritage Times HT recalls that Trump was previously charged with 37 felony counts including 31 counts of willful retention of classified documents and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
To these charges, he has pleaded not guilty and claimed the prosecution is a politically motivated “witch hunt” against him. Speaking on Thursday July 27, 2023 with Breitbart, Trump called the charges “harassment” and “election interference.”
Walt Nauta, his former aide, was also charged in the case and pleaded not guilty.
The New Charges
The new document names a third defendant in the case: Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago property manager and former valet. He faces 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 one count of making false statements and representations during a voluntary interview with federal investigators.
Thus, De Oliveira has been ordered to appear in federal court in Miami on Monday morning, even as his attorney has declined comment on the matter.
Spokesman for the Trump campaign, Steve Cheung, claimed the new counts are part of efforts to damage Trump as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination and “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him.”
The 32nd count of willful retention of national defense information in the superseding indictment stems from a document Trump showed to four people during a July, 21, 2021, meeting at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to the new filing. The indictment alleges that the document, which Trump had until mid-Jan. 2022, was marked TOP SECRET/NOFORN, and is described in the indictment as a “presentation concerning military activity in a foreign country.”
According to the superseding indictment, Trump was participating in a recorded interview with a writer and a publisher, and two of his aides were also present. The former president told the group he had a “plan of attack” from a senior military official. Trump characterized the document as “highly confidential” and “secret information”. “As president I could have declassified it. … Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret,” he said.
The indictment also points out that neither the aides nor the writer or publisher had a security clearance. The document, Heritage Times HT gathered, was a Defense Department memo on Iran, and was not part of the original 31 counts of retention of national defense information charged in Smith’s initial indictment.
The new charges against Trump related to his handling of sensitive government records are the first brought by the Justice Department against a former president.
A trial date of May 2024 has been set by Judge Aileen Cannon, the judge overseeing the case. The new charges come as the former president and his attorneys are waiting for the possibility of a separate indictment stemming from Smith’s investigation into attempts to alter the 2020 presidential election and interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.
