WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury indicted a second aide to former President Donald Trump on Thursday, and added new allegations against Trump in the case that charges him with obstruction of justice in the hoarding of classified information.
Carlos De Oliveira, an employee of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, is accused of helping move boxes of classified information around Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., according to a superseding indictment filed in the Florida case.
The revised indictment accused Trump and the two co-defendants of seeking to erase security video of rooms in which boxes were kept.
Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira are accused of asking an unnamed employee to “delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury,” the revised indictment said.
In June, a federal grand jury indicted Trump and personal Walt Nauta on obstruction charges related to Trump’s handling of classified material after he left office. The revised indictment adds new allegations against Nauta.
Both Trump and Nauta have pleaded innocent to the obstruction charges, and Trump has denounced the entire investigation as politically motivated.
The Trump campaign attacked the superseding indictment in a statement calling the new charges against the former president’s employees “a continued desperate and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration to “harass President Trump and those around him.”
Special counsel Jack Smith “knows that they have no case and is casting about for any way to salvage their illegal witch hunt and to get someone other than Donald Trump to run against” Biden, the campaign statement said.
The revised indictment came down the same day that Trump attorneys met with Smith’s office about another case, an investigation into efforts to overturn Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump said this month that he has received a target letter and could be charged in the case that also involves the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
What is a superseding indictment?
Smith filed a superseding indictment against Trump on Thursday in the case regarding his alleged mishandling of classified documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
A superseding indictment is a formal criminal complaint brought by a grand jury to replace an original indictment. Superseding indictments usually add or remove defendants or add and remove charges from the original indictment.
In the case of the superseding indictment against Trump, it brought new charges against the former president and brought charges against a Mar-a-Lago employee who was not charged in the initial indictment.
Prosecutors usually file superseding indictments after they obtain new information or evidence that warrants changes to the original indictment.
