Donald Trump asked a staff member to delete camera footage at his Florida estate in an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into his possession of classified documents, according to an updated indictment.
The document, unsealed on Thursday, adds new charges against the former US president and names an additional defendant.
The indictment includes new counts of obstruction and wilful retention of national defence information, compounding Mr Trump’s legal jeopardy even as he braces for a possible additional indictment in Washington over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The additional counts underscore the extent of the year-long investigation into Trump that first produced charges last month in the form of a 38-count indictment against him and his valet, Walt Nauta.
A Trump spokesperson dismissed the new charges as “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration “to harass President Trump and those around him” and to influence the 2024 presidential race.
The classified records were taken by Mr Trump to Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House in January 2021.
The superseding indictment charges Mr Trump with an additional count of wilfully retaining national defence information relating to the former president discussing US military plans to attack another country during an interview in July 2021 at his New Jersey golf club at Bedminster.
The interview was for a memoir being written by his one-time chief of staff Mark Meadows, who in his subsequent book named the country as Iran.
According to the indictment, Mr Trump returned that document, which was marked as top secret and not approved to be shown show to foreign nationals, to the federal government on January 17th, 2022.
It marks a notable shift in the prosecution’s approach to Mr Trump’s case, charging him for retaining a document it alleges the former president knew was highly sensitive after he left office — and not just for failing to return it to the government when asked.
Mr Trump and Mr Nauta have pleaded not guilty.
