Former President Donald Trump was forced to plead not guilty for the second time in 24 hours to the new charges Special Counsel Jack Smith brought against Trump in the federal case accusing him of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.
Trump entered his plea and waived his right to be in court in Fort Pierce, Florida, on August 10 for his arraignment on three additional charges. The new charges pertain to allegations Trump ordered his property manager to delete security footage at Mar-a-Lago to cover up his hoarding of government secrets.
The new accusations were revealed in a superseding indictment last week. According to the indictment, Mar-a-Lago’s head of maintenance, Carlos De Oliveira, told an employee “the boss” wanted the footage deleted.
Trump denies all of the allegations.
“Mar-a-lago security tapes were not deleted. They were voluntarily handed over to the thugs, headed up by deranged Jack Smith,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “We did not even go to court to stop them from getting these tapes. I never told anybody to delete them. Prosecutorial fiction & misconduct! Election interference!”
CNN’s Tierney Sneed has more on the 45th president’s latest courtroom appearance:
Last week, Smith charged Trump, who had already faced 37 criminal charges in the classified documents case, with one additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts. He also filed new charges against Walt Nauta, the former president’s aide, and added Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira to the case.
Trump and Nauta had pleaded not guilty to the initial charges earlier this summer.
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Trump’s co-defendants, De Oliveira and Nauta, have not indicated in court filings their plans for the arraignment.
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Std MO
who appointed the cowardly Judge?