Trump hit with new charges in Mar-a-Lago classified documents case

Court documents made public on Thursday reveal that special counsel Jack Smith has filed additional charges against Donald Trump in the ongoing Mar-a-Lago documents case that include: altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object; corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing a document, record or other object; and an additional charge of willful retention of national defense information, according to CBS News. A third defendant has also been added to the case, Carlos De Oliveira, who is reportedly the head of maintenance at Trump’s Florida estate. He is said to have helped Trump’s personal assistant Walt Nauta — who was charged last month — shuffle government materials around the property following the Justice Department’s first subpoena for the materials in May of 2022. 

According to AP News, the new charges against Trump detail that “he and aides asked a staffer to delete camera footage at his Florida estate in an effort to obstruct the classified documents investigations.” De Oliveira is accused of draining a swimming pool, flooding a server room containing surveillance video logs. A Trump spokesperson issued a brief statement on the new charges calling them “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt to harass President Trump and those around him.” The judge in the case, Judge Aileen Cannon, has set a trial date of May 2024.