Trump, Nauta plead not guilty to additional Mar-a-Lago charges
Donald Trump pleaded not guilty through his attorneys Thursday in a second court appearance after Justice Department lawyers brought additional charges in the Mar-a-Lago case accusing the former president of leading an effort to delete security camera footage from his Florida home.
Trump’s co-defendant in the case Walt Nauta, Trump’s valet, pleaded not guilty. Another co-defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago, entered no plea as he has not yet secured a Florida-based attorney.
The arraignment follows a superseding indictment in the case that named Trump as a central figure in an attempt to delete surveillance footage captured at Mar-a-Lago shortly after the Justice Department alerted that it would seek the video, prompting additional obstruction charges for Trump.
The indictment also prompted another Espionage Act charge, indicating that authorities are in possession of military planning documents relating to Iran that Trump allegedly waived around during a meeting with those without security clearances.
Trump has since claimed it was all “bravado” and that he was only holding a collection of random papers.
The indictment notes a lengthy call between Trump and De Oliveira shortly after the Justice Department indicated its interest in the tapes.
De Oliveira then allegedly set about determining how long security footage was stored on the Mar-a-Lago system. It says he later told another Mar-a-Lago employee that “‘the boss’ wanted the server deleted.”
The indictment also described De Oliveira and Nauta organizing their plans secretly, apparently walking among the bushes around the IT office where the security footage was managed.
At another point, De Oliveira and Nauta “walked with a flashlight through the tunnel where the storage room was located, and observed and pointed out security cameras.”
The superseding indictment brings the total number of counts facing the former president in this case to 40.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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