As this week unfolded, the political world had certain expectations regarding Donald Trump’s legal predicaments. With the former president receiving a target letter last week, and with the grand jury in the special counsel’s 2020 election investigation meeting this week, many observers were on “indictment watch” — with the assumption that if Trump were going to face new charges, they’d relate to his efforts to overturn his defeat.
As it turns out, Jack Smith and federal prosecutors had a different plan in mind. The former president is facing new charges, but as NBC News reported, a new indictment relates to his classified documents scandal, not the 2020 probe.
The federal indictment, filed in the Southern District of Florida, alleges that Trump was part of a scheme to delete security video and that a newly charged defendant — who was identified as a property manager at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence — told another employee that “the boss” wanted the server deleted.
To be sure, the original 37-count indictment in this case, which was unsealed last month, was brutal. The special counsel’s office had collected striking evidence of the Republican allegedly taking and keeping highly sensitive national security documents, and storing them around his glorified country club — including, famously, in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom.
That same indictment accused Trump of among other things, allegedly suggesting that his attorney lie to the FBI, directing an aide to move boxes in order to conceal them, suggesting that his attorney “hide or destroy” documents in the hopes of defying a federal subpoena, and twice showing classified materials to people who lacked security clearances.
It was difficult to imagine the story getting worse. Then it got worse.
Here are some of the topline takeaways to keep in mind as the process moves forward:
There’s now a third defendant. The original indictment implicated Trump and Walt Nauta. The new, “superseding” indictment also charges Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago maintenance supervisor, who’s now also been accused of crimes related to obstruction.
The third defendant’s misdeeds matter. As my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin explained, “Among other things, the new indictment alleges that Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira requested that an unidentified employee delete security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago to prevent the footage from being provided to special counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury. De Oliveira told the employee ‘that ‘the boss’ wanted the server deleted,’ prosecutors alleged in the new indictment.”
Or put another way, prosecutors have reason to believe that Trump tried to destroy evidence — and conspired with others to make it happen. In her latest column, The Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus added, “If the allegations in the latest indictment of Donald Trump hold up, the former president is a common criminal — and an uncommonly stupid one. Everyone knows, as the Watergate scandal drove home: The coverup is always worse than the crime. Everyone, that is, but Trump.” The charges against Trump have multiplied. In this case, the former president was already facing 37 charges. Now, that total is up to 40. The highly sensitive document Trump allegedly showed off at Bedminster is relevant anew. Remember a month ago when we all heard an audio recording of Trump admitting he kept classified docs while presenting a war plan with Iran to someone who lacked clearance? It’s back: Rubin’s report went on to explain, “The incident from Bedminster, New Jersey, in 2021, was mentioned in the initial indictment and led to speculation over whether the government actually had the document in its possession. Now Trump is directly charged with it, marking 32 willful retention counts in the new indictment, up from 31 in the initial indictment.” By any fair measure, members of the former president’s defense team have their work cut out for them.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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