Trump Pleads Not Guilty to More Charges in Classified Documents Case
Written by worldOneFm on August 4, 2023
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Friday to three new charges related to his handling of U.S. classified documents after he left the White House in 2021, a court filing showed.
Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, also waived his right to be present in Florida federal court for his arraignment on the three additional charges on August 10.
The action came a day after Trump appeared in federal court in Washington to plead not guilty to separate charges that he orchestrated an illegal plot to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Trump now faces 40 charges in the documents case after originally being indicted on 37 counts last month. His valet, Walt Nauta, is also facing new charges, and prosecutors added a third defendant and another Trump employee, Carlos De Oliveira, to the case in a superseding indictment last week.
It was unclear on Friday whether Nauta and De Oliveira would be present in court to enter their pleas on August 10. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Prosecutors accused Trump of taking hundreds of documents containing the nation’s most closely held secrets — including details about the U.S. nuclear program and military plans — and storing them haphazardly at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump also showed classified information to people who were not authorized to see it, according to the indictment.
Nauta and De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago, are accused of trying to hide the documents from federal investigators seeking their return and attempting to destroy evidence, including security camera footage.
Trump in April became the first sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal charges when he was indicted in New York state court, accused of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star. He pleaded not guilty.
He was indicted for the third time on Tuesday in Washington federal court regarding his efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss. That case and the documents case are being pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia are also probing Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss in that state and are expected to announce a charging decision by August 18.
Reuters
