Former President Donald Trump is facing new charges in the classified documents case. Special Counsel Jack Smith on Thursday, July 27, brought an additional three counts against the belabored Trump, accusing him of attempting to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage. While allegations that documents were improperly held could be a tough sell – especially since President Joe Biden and former VP Mike Pence are in similar situations – the new charges could be far more damaging. As the Watergate-era adage goes, "the cover-up is often worse than the crime." However, as the hullabaloo around Trump grows, it seems the multiple issues facing the Bidens fade quietly into the background.
The Details
The indictment claims that Trump and two members of his staff, Waltine "Walt" Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, sought to make another employee "delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury." Further adding to the legal turmoil is the alleged withholding of an additional document, specifically the one referenced in the recording where Trump says that "as president, I could have declassified it… Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."
A statement from the Department of Justice reads: "Today, a superseding indictment was returned by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida that adds one defendant and four charges to the prior indictment filed against Donald J. Trump and Waltine Nauta… The superseding indictment adds a new Count charging Trump with one additional count of willful retention of National Defense Information."
It adds that:
"The superseding indictment also charges Trump, De Oliveira and Nauta with two new obstruction counts based on allegations that the defendants attempted to delete surveillance video footage at The Mar-a-Lago Club in summer 2022."
According to the Washington Examiner, "The two new charges against Trump related to seeking to alter security camera footage carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison each. The charge of willfully retaining national defense secrets is punishable by up to 10 years in prison."
Trump Reacts
Naturally, the former president was quick to respond to the new accusations. On his TruthSocial account, he posted:
"Whatever happened to the Crooked Joe Biden Document's case? He had 20 times more Boxes than I did, and he wasn't covered by the Presidential Records Act. I was! When it first came out that Biden had all of these Docs, many Classified, almost everyone, including those on the Left, said, 'there goes the case against Trump.' But they waited and waited, got failed prosecutor Deranged Jack Smith, and STRUCK - but did almost nothing on the REALLY BAD Biden Documents case, many stored in Chinatown!"
It seems that Trump, his lawyers, and his campaign team see this as a political persecution designed to derail his candidacy. “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," a spokesman for his campaign said. "Deranged 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 Crooked Joe Biden," he added.
Distractions?
(Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
The case is due to be heard in May 2024. But before the ultimate court date, a number of other factors have to play out. The new defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, will appear before the judge on Monday, July 31, the very same day that Hunter Biden’s business associate Devon Archer is due to testify in Congress regarding Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings. Also of note is that these new charges land just one day after Hunter Biden’s “sweetheart plea deal” – negotiated between Hunter’s lawyers and Joe’s DOJ – was rejected by the court for essentially granting him blanket immunity against any other crimes that are discovered during ongoing investigations.
The charges against Trump are, indeed, serious, but with politics, everything is about appearance. That each negative story about the Bidens gets subsumed by a drip-drip strategy against Trump gives the impression – rightly or wrongly – that the actions, legal issues, and potential criminality of a former president are of more importance than those of a sitting one.
