Former President Donald Trump asked an aide to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage in an effort to erase evidence in the classified documents investigation, according to a dramatic replacement indictment unveiled Thursday.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team of prosecutors has filed additional charges to the 32 charges against the former president — and another Trump aide has now been charged with conspiracy in the Mar-a-Lago case involving classified documents.
One of the charges is that the former president allegedly told aides to “wipe” security footage from his Florida club’s server as a way to thwart investigators investigating the removal of classified documents from the White House.
Mar-a-Lago chief of maintenance Carlos De Oliveira has been named as the third defendant alongside former president and his valet Walt Nauta.
He is quoted in the charge against another Mar-a-Lago employee that “”the boss” wanted the server removed.”
The news came on a day when former President Donald Trump’s lawyers met with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors
The Trump campaign issued a statement on Thursday evening, but did not address the plaintiffs head-on.
“This is nothing more than an ongoing desperate and desperate effort by the Biden Crime Family and their Justice Department to harass President Trump and those around him,” the statement read.
“The deranged Jack Smith knows they have no case and is looking for a way to salvage their illegal witch hunt and get someone other than Donald Trump to take on Crooked Joe Biden,” the statement also claimed.
The former president telling employees to wipe a server would be a stunning move after Trump harassed his ex-political rival, 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, for handling her emails.
As recently as June, Trump claimed that Clinton acid washed the emails she deleted from the private server she used as secretary of state before turning the rest over to federal investigators.
The new developments pose additional legal jeopardy for the former president, who spent part of Thursday claiming his lawyers relayed to Smith’s team that he had “done nothing wrong” and that their Jan. 6 case was flawed. and that an indictment would “further destroy our cause.” Country.’
The additional charges in the new indictment against classified documents relate to obstruction of justice and deliberate withholding of national defense information.
Smith’s team added them to the existing indictment on Thursday night.
Trump was hit with a 37-count indictment in June.
According to a passage in the replacement charge filed Thursday, De Oliveira “told Trump associate 4 that their conversation should stay between the two of them.”
De Oliveira’ asked Trump associate 4 how many days the server kept footage. Trump associate 4 replied that he thought it was about 45 days.”
It continued: “De Oliveira told Trump associate 4 that “the boss” wanted the server removed.”
That language, if substantiated, appears to place Trump at the center of the alleged conspiracy to cover up information.
The suit states that De Oliveira stated that he did not know how to delete the server or if he would be entitled to do so.
De Oliveira allegedly helped Nauta move boxes of sensitive files around the private club after the Justice Department subpoenaed Trump.
Nauta continues to work for Trump and faces charges of conspiracy to withhold classified information from the government. He pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami earlier this month.
The specific allegations against De Oliveira were not immediately clear.
The news, Trump said, came on a day when former President Donald Trump’s lawyers met with special counsel prosecutors to discuss the Jan. 6 case.
Developments in the Mar-a-Lago case came on a day when a separate Jan. 6 investigation progressed
Walt Nauta, an aide to former President Donald Trump, has already been charged with conspiracy
Trump called the new indictment a “desperate and desperate effort by the Biden Crime Family,” even though the White House reiterated Thursday that the Justice Department is independent. AG Merrick Garland has appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith to handle the Trump investigations
Trump has long called all of his investigations part of a “witch hunt” and has repeatedly turned his fire on the Biden family, calling them “corrupt.”
He told Fox News Thursday night that the new moves amount to election interference.
Nauta was considered a witness that prosecutors might try to “turn around” to get testimony against Trump, and he met with investigators during their investigation. But instead, the former White House clerk has remained in Trump’s employ, and prosecutors have charged the former clerk.
Now, De Oliveira’s inclusion poses another candidate for pressure, though as in Nauta’s case, prosecutors may have decided they can make their case without him.
The stunning news came on a day when eyes were on the January 6 case, where Trump has received a target letter from prosecutors related to that case, in Washington, D.C.
The indictment again focuses on a meeting Trump had in July 2021 with a writer and publisher identified as working on the book by former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
It quotes from an interview in which Trump boasted of a “highly confidential” document, which he used to undermine former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley.
“He said I wanted to attack a country,” Trump said, waving the document.
The tape may have already undermined a Trump defense, but it included his comment that “you see as president I could have declassified it,” but “now I can’t.”
According to the new indictment, “The document that TRUMP owned and showed on July 21, 2021 is indicted as count 32 in this superseded indictment.”
Other information in the indictment links Trump even more closely to the boxes of material around his club — at a time when the National Archives was trying to recover material.
In December 2021, an employee wrote that “box answer will be ripped out of him today, promise!”, followed by “12 is his number.”
One staffer texted about Trump, “He follows the boxes, more to come today whether he wants to go through more today or tomorrow.” Another says he asked for “new covers for the boxes, for Monday m.” Morning.’
It added, ‘*can we get new box covers before we give them this Monday? Too much has been written on it. I marked too much.’
That all preceded Trump finally delivering 15 boxes to the records in January 2022.
The new indictment details Nauta’s steps to change travel plans after meeting with Trump, the same day DOJ subpoenaed a grand jury for security footage.
Nauta gave “inconsistent statements” to colleagues, saying he had a family emergency, but also used “silent” emojis.
Reuniting with De Oliveria, he visited a guard’s booth where surveillance videos are held, “walking through the tunnel where the storage room was located with a flashlight, observing and pointing out surveillance cameras.”
De Oliveira then told “Trump Employee 4” in a conversation that “should stay between the two” that the boss wanted to take down the server.
Another part of the indictment describes the period after the FBI discovered classified documents at MAL following the execution of a search warrant.
It says that Nauta called employee 5 to say that “someone just wants to make sure Carlos is good,” referring to De Oliveira.
The aide said De Oliveira was “loyal” and would do nothing to damage his relationship with Trump.
He then told a PAC rep in a signal chat the same thing. Trump called De Oliveira that same day and told him that “TRUMP would provide DE OLIVEIRIA with a lawyer,” it read.
The new indictment names the trio — Trump, De Oliveria and Nauta, saying they “knowingly combined, colluded, confederated and agreed” to “engage in deceptive conduct” to solicit another person “corruptly.” withhold information.
Other counts only cover Trump and Nauta.
A new count, Count 40, accuses the trio of “altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object.” That relates to the trio requesting that an employee “remove security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.”
It says De Oliveira made false statements during a January 2023 interview in Palm Beach.
He said he “never saw anything” when boxes were delivered to Mar-a-Lago.
But according to the FBI, he knew because he “personally observed and assisted TRUMP’s boxes when they arrived at The Mar-a-Lago Club in January 2021.”