(National Review) Former president Donald Trump and two aides attempted to delete surveillance footage at Mar-a-Lago in an effort to obstruct the Department of Justice’s investigation into his handling of classified documents, prosecutors alleged in a superseding indictment on Thursday.
The revised indictment adds several additional charges against Trump: attempting to “alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal evidence”; inducing someone else to do so; and an additional count under the Espionage Act in connection with a classified national security document he allegedly showed to visitors at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
Trump is accused of working with aides Carlos De Oliveira and Walt Nauta to try to delete the surveillance footage. De Oliveira was named as a defendant in the case for the first time on Thursday. He was added to the obstruction conspiracy charged in the original indictment.
The indictment charges the trio with two new obstruction counts after they allegedly instructed an unnamed fourth worker to delete surveillance footage last summer “to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.”
De Oliveira, a maintenance worker, sought to figure out how long security footage was stored at Mar-a-Lago and told another employee that “‘the boss’ wanted the server deleted,’” according to the indictment.
The revised indictment brings Trump’s total number of charges in the case to 42.
Trump was previously facing 37 counts in the classified documents case, including willful retention of national-defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and making false statements and representations.
