Trump accused of trying to delete surveillance footage in classified documents case

Former President Trump faces additional charges from federal prosecutors in the case related to his handling of classified documents, with a superseding indictment alleging that he tried to destroy surveillance video at his Mar-a-Lago Club last year.

Trump, his personal aide and co-defendant, Walt Nauta and a new defendant, Mar-a-Lago employee Carlos de Oliveira, 56, are charged with two new counts of obstruction based on allegations that they attempted to delete surveillance video at the Mar-a-Lago Club in late June 2022 after receiving a subpoena ordering the footage to be turned over to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigators.

The 60-page indictment outlines a 24-minute phone call between Trump and De Oliveira the day after the former president learned the subpoena was forthcoming. It also details a clandestine trip Nauta took to Mar-a-Lago and pressure De Oliveira placed on an unnamed IT employee indicating that Trump wanted the server containing the security footage to be wiped clean.

In a statement, Trump called the superseding indictment “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt” to “harass” him.

In June, Trump, who is again seeking the Republican presidential nomination, pleaded not guilty to 37 felony charges in connection with his handling of classified documents and alleged attempts to prevent the government from recovering them.

The original indictment charged that he unlawfully took classified records when his presidency ended in January 2021, then obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve hundreds of the secret documents. The indictment states that Trump kept the records in unsecured areas of Mar-a-Lago, including in a bathroom, ballroom and storage room. The Mar-a-Lago property is home to a private club that hosts thousands of people each year.

According to the indictment, top-secret and other classified records that the FBI recovered in August after a subpoena and a search of the property included details on U.S. and foreign nations’ nuclear and other defense and weapons capabilities; potential vulnerabilities of the U.S. and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to such an attack.

The original indictment also accuses Trump of having Nauta move 64 boxes out of the Mar-a-Lago storage room to Trump’s residence so the former president could go through the contents before his lawyer reviewed them to comply with a subpoena for their return issued in May. It states that Nauta returned only 30 boxes to the storage room for the lawyer to review.

Thursday’s superseding indictment also charges Trump with an additional count of willful retention of national defense information stemming from a document he showed two staff members and two people working with Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on his autobiography during a conversation held at Trump’s Bedminster, N.J. golf club on July 21, 2021.

De Oliveira is also charged with false statements and representations in a voluntary interview with the FBI on Jan. 13, 2023. According to the indictment, he claimed during the interview that he had no knowledge of the boxes that were brought to Florida when Trump left office. The indictment also said he helped move the boxes.