Trump indicted on more charges in Mar-a-Lago documents probe

Donald Trump has been indicted on more charges related to his handling of classified documents after he left the White House.

Special Counsel Jack Smith (L) and former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

Special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday brought more charges against Donald Trump related to his retention of classified documents after he left the White House, alleging the former president and his aides sought to have surveillance footage deleted so it couldn’t be turned over to a grand jury.

The new indictment also charges Carlos de Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, making him the third defendant charged in the case.

The new charges broaden a indictment brought by a Florida grand jury in June alleging the former president held on to sensitive military secrets he knew he shouldn’t have retained access to, shared them with others and directed his staff to help him evade authorities’ efforts to get them back. And they come as Trump braces for separate federal charges over efforts to undo his 2020 election loss.

The June indictment charged Trump with 37 counts on seven different charges, including willful retention of national-defense information, withholding a record, false statements and conspiracy to obstruct. On five of the counts, Trump was charged alongside his personal aide, Walt Nauta, who also faces a false-statements charge. Both he and Trump have pleaded not guilty to those charges. An attorney for de Oliveira, who was also charged with lying to investigators, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The superseding indictment returned Thursday charges Trump with an additional count of willful retention, and both Trump and Nauta with two more counts of obstruction.

Smith’s office made the announcement just hours after Trump’s lawyers met with prosecutors to try to head off additional criminal charges related to Trump’s attempts to stay in power after President Biden’s election win in November 2020, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The new charges heighten the extraordinary legal peril facing Trump as he campaigns to win back the White House in 2024. The political risk is less clear, as the former president has only seemed to grow stronger among Republicans with each prosecution.

The meeting with Trump’s lawyers kept the Justice Department as the uncomfortable focus of political interest, a day after a planned plea agreement for President Biden’s son, Hunter, collapsed during a tense court hearing where prosecutors surprised the defense team by saying they were still investigating him and he could face new charges.

Trump’s campaigning schedule could be complicated as court hearings mount and the issues would play a different way in a general election.

Trump’s campaign was ready for an indictment, complete with blast fundraising emails, and remains so. The former president has harnessed his legal problems into a broad argument of being politically targeted, with many Republican voters and lawmakers rallying around him.

In that spirit, Trump spokesman Stephen Cheung, responding to the new charges in the Mar-a-Lago case, said, “This is nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him.” Defense lawyers often use meetings such as the one Thursday morning to make last-ditch arguments against charging a client, but it couldn’t immediately be determined what was discussed after Trump’s lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche arrived at Smith’s office, several miles from the Justice Department’s main headquarters in downtown Washington. Prosecutors revealed little about their plans, as defense attorneys made their arguments against any charges, people familiar with the matter said.

A spokesman for Smith declined to comment.

Trump confirmed the meeting on his Truth Social platform. “My attorneys had a productive meeting with the DOJ this morning, explaining in detail that I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers, and that an Indictment of me would only further destroy our Country,” he said. “No indication of notice was given during the meeting.” Prosecutors earlier this month told Trump’s legal team he is a target of Smith’s far-ranging investigation into attempts by the former president and his allies to undermine the 2020 election, the clearest sign yet that an indictment may be looming. Thursday’s meeting was another indication that the probe is at a critical juncture.

The special counsel’s target letter cites three statutes, according to a person familiar with the matter, including a Reconstruction-era civil-rights charge; conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and obstruction of an official proceeding.

An indictment would open a second federal criminal case against Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, under the administration led by his potential 2024 rival, President Biden. Smith’s office is also prosecuting Trump on a separate, 37-count indictment alleging he retained classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve them. A federal judge has scheduled the trial in that case to begin on May 20, 2024.

In the election-interference probe, Smith and his team cast a wide net in their investigation into attempts by Trump and his allies to stop the transfer of power to Biden in the days leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, where Trump had urged his supporters to go in protest while lawmakers were certifying Biden’s win.

For months, the far-ranging probe has advanced on a number of tracks, with prosecutors examining efforts to assemble fake slates of pro-Trump electors to send to Congress; pressuring former Vice President Mike Pence to thwart the congressional certification of Biden’s win; pressing state officials to undo their results; fundraising off false claims of election fraud; and rallying his supporters to march to the Capitol.

Federal grand jurors in Washington have heard from a variety of witnesses, including election officials from several states, White House lawyers, Trump campaign officials and a list of Trump’s closest aides. Pence, Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and other senior officials in Trump’s closest circles also testified after Trump’s lawyers tried unsuccessfully to block their appearances, citing executive privilege. Prosecutors interviewed Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani for eight hours.

Alex Leary contributed to this article.

The Wall Street Journal