The DOJ’s indictment includes photos of classified documents found at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence.
DOJ
A third defendant was charged Thursday in the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of multiple felonies in connection with his retaining classified documents at his Florida residence after leaving the White House.
Carlos Deoliveira, who reportedly is a worker at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, joins Trump and the ex-president’s valet Walt Nauta as defendants in the case in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Deoliveira was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, altering destroying, mutilating a document, and false statements.
Trump stored hundreds of government documents at Mar-a-Lago after he left office, and according to prosecutors took steps to keep them hidden from U.S. officials seeking their return.
Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty in the case, which is being prosecuted by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith.
John Irving, a lawyer for Deoliveira, declined to comment on the case, according to NBC News.
Smith separately is overseeing a criminal investigation of Trump related to his efforts to undo his 2020 electoral loss to President Joe Biden. The special counsel last week informed Trump that he is a target in that probe, a notification that typically occurs before the target is charged in a case.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung in a statement Thursday evening about Deoliveira being added to the case, said, “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.”
“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,” Cheung said.
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