Washington: Donald Trump, a former US president, was charged with new crimes on Thursday, including conspiring to destroy surveillance footage at his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago in an effort to obstruct the investigation into the improper handling of top-secret documents.
The newly unsealed indictment against the front-runner in the Republican primary for president in 2024, who is scheduled to go on trial as the election heats up in May of next year, was unveiled by federal prosecutors.
The new accusations were made on the same day that Trump claimed his attorneys had a meeting with Justice Department representatives regarding a different anticipated indictment regarding his alleged attempts to change the outcome of the 2020 election.
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The twice-impeached ex-president was charged with endangering national security by keeping top-secret nuclear and defence information after leaving the White House when he was first indicted in the case involving the classified documents last month.
The indictment alleges that Trump obstructed attempts by government officials to retrieve the files, which included records from the Pentagon, CIA, and National Security Agency, by keeping them unsecured at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
The billionaire is charged in a superseding indictment issued on Thursday with conspiring to erase Mar-a-Lago security camera footage along with his co-defendant in the case, personal assistant Waltine "Walt" Nauta, and a fresh defendant, property manager Carlos de Oliveira.
The new accusations are in addition to the counts of "willful retention of national defence information" and the charges of conspiring to obstruct justice, lying to the police, and other offences to which Trump pleaded not guilty last month.
De Oliveira claims that "the boss" wants the server deleted during a conversation with a fourth, unnamed employee that is described in the new indictment.
Additionally, it adds a new count of espionage in connection with Trump's alleged retention of a secret document "concerning military activity in a foreign country."
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Trump allegedly said to visitors to his New Jersey golf club in 2021 regarding the defence document, "As president I could have declassified it, and Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret," according to the indictment, citing an audio recording of the interaction.
In an interview with Fox News Digital on Thursday night, Trump called the fresh allegations "ridiculous."
He called it "election interference at the highest level" and accused President Joe Biden and the Justice Department of engaging in "prosecutorial misconduct."
Additionally, his campaign issued a curt statement in which it dubbed Jack Smith, the special counsel assigned to the case, as "deranged" and claimed that he "knows that they have no case."
US media reported earlier on Thursday that Smith met with Trump's attorneys and informed them that an indictment in the distinct January 6 case was imminent.
Trump claimed that his legal team was not informed of the impending release of any indictments in the case involving his supporters' attack on the US Capitol in 2021.
Trump posted on social media, "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,"
Do not believe the fake news about anything; there was no sign of notice during the meeting.
Trump claimed on July 18 that Smith had written him a letter stating that he was a target of the January 6 investigation, which was aimed at preventing the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.
According to reports, the letter cited three federal criminal statutes, including deprivation of rights, obstruction of an official investigation, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Those could be related to plans to persuade a number of states to alter their vote tallies in order to declare Trump the winner and to elect "fake electors" who would force Congress to declare Trump the winner over Biden overall.
Trump has criticised the investigation numerous times, calling it a political "witch hunt."
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He asserts without any backing that widespread voter fraud caused him to lose the election.
Trump's trial over the classified documents will start in May of next year, at the height of what is anticipated to be a bitter and divisive presidential election campaign, according to a judge's order issued last week.
It was requested that it take place after the election in November 2024 by Trump's defence attorneys.