On Thursday, U.S. legal authorities expanded their ongoing criminal lawsuit against Donald Trump, unveiling fresh allegations against the previous president and implicating another staff member in aiding the concealment of confidential national security records that Trump allegedly removed from the White House.
In reference to a situation where Trump, a member of the Republican party, openly discussed a “strategic move” against a different nation during a conversation at his New Jersey golf property, the appointed Special Counsel, Jack Smith, accused Trump of intentionally preserving classified documents. This accusation adds to the existing 37 criminal charges already laid against Trump in this case.
The enhanced indictment states that Trump acknowledged the document’s top-secret nature. According to Smith, no one else present had the necessary clearance to scrutinize the document.
Smith also introduced new criminal allegations against Carlos De Oliveira, an employee in the maintenance department at Trump’s Florida-based Mar-a-Lago resort. The charges suggest that De Oliveira played a role in concealing sensitive state documents from authorities trying to retrieve them.
There was no immediate response from De Oliveira’s legal counsel when contacted for a comment.
These accusations were disclosed just a few hours after Trump claimed his legal team had a meeting with Justice Department personnel probing his efforts to reverse his 2020 electoral defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. This suggests that a completely new array of criminal charges might be forthcoming.
In response to the latest charges, a statement from the Trump campaign dismissed the proceedings as nothing more than a continual, desperate attempt by the “Biden Crime Family” and their Department of Justice to harass Trump and his associates. The statement also dubbed Special Counsel Smith as “deranged” and accused him of desperately seeking any possible way to save their “illegal witch hunt.”
Trump holds the dubious distinction of being the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, with two indictments already leveled against him this year. One was for hush-money transactions to an adult film actress in New York and the other concerning the classified records.
Despite these allegations, Trump’s prospects as the primary contender for the Republican nomination to confront President Biden in the 2024 election remain unharmed.
In fact, Trump’s advantage over his closest competitor, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has increased. An earlier survey conducted by Reuters/Ipsos revealed that Trump’s lead over DeSantis among Republicans grew from 44%-29% prior to the first New York indictment in March to 47%-19%.
Last month, Trump proclaimed his innocence in Miami to federal charges of unlawfully retaining classified government documents post his 2021 office term and obstructing justice. The prosecutors asserted that his actions put the U.S.’s most sensitive national security secrets at risk.
Walt Nauta, another aide to Trump, also declared his innocence earlier this month to charges claiming he aided the former president in concealing those documents.
