Last night, Special Counsel Jack Smith interrupted our breathless indictment watch to give us … another indictment.
Half the reporters in DC were camped out outside the E. Barrett Prettyman courthouse, summoned by early morning reports that Trump’s lawyers had called on the DOJ and been told to expect an indictment in the January 6 inquiry as early as yesterday. And then Trump burped out this non-denial denial on Truth Social.
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. No indication of notice was given during the meeting — Do not trust the Fake News on anything!
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This seemed to confirm that the further destruction of our Country would be taking place in DC. But in the event, the apocalypse crept in Florida in a superseding indictment adding another defendant and a whole new, even stupider set of charges.
Originally Trump was charged with his valet Walt Nauta, who moved the boxes full of purloined documents around Mar-a-Lago to evade the prying eyes of the Justice Department and Trump’s own lawyers. After lying to the FBI about it and then failing to grab the lifeline offered to him by prosecutors, Nauta wound up on the pointy end of an indictment along with his boss. Apparently Carlos De Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago property manager has now followed suit, netting himself four charges for: conspiracy to obstruct justice, altering, mutilating, destroying or concealing an object; corruptly altering, mutilating, destroying or concealing a document or other record; and false statements.
Say what you will about Donald Trump, but the man does know how to hire loyal staff.
De Oliveira is alleged to have participated in the shell game with the boxes of documents described in the initial indictment. But the new indictment adds an entire new section entitled “The Attempt to Delete Security Camera Footage,” in which the prosecutors detail the freakout in Trumpland after the FBI subpoenaed the security camera footage of the hall outside the storage locker where Trump was storing the boxes of government documents.
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Here’s a timeline of the caper:
- June 22, 2022: Special Counsel says it plans to subpoena the footage.
- June 23: Trump calls De Oliveira and speaks to him for 24 minutes.
- June 24: Subpoena issues, Trump summons Nauta, who makes plans to go to Florida, supplying contradictory explanations for his trip, including a shushing emoji with some of his texts.
- Also June 24: Nauta reaches out to De Oliveira, and both men reach out to the Mar-a-Lago IT guy.
- June 25: Nauta arrives in Florida, as De Oliveira cautions other Mar-a-Lago employees that his trip is a big secret. Nauta and Oliveira take their flashlights and go examine the security cameras outside the storage locker.
- June 27: De Oliveira approaches the head of IT and tells him that Trump wants the security camera footage destroyed. The IT guy demurs. Later that day, De Oliveira and Nauta sneak through the bushes, return to the IT office, and then sneak onto an adjacent property, after which De Oliveira has another call with Trump.
- August 8: FBI serves search warrant on Mar-a-Lago.
- August 25: Nauta calls around to confirm that De Oliveira will remain loyal to Trump, discussing it in a group Signal message group which includes a “PAC representative.” Trump calls De Oliveira and tells him he will get him a lawyer.
- January 23, 2023: De Oliveira is questioned by the FBI. No lawyer is present. De Oliveira denies all the above.
Not for nothing, but these guys make the Watergate plumbers look like a MENSA meeting.
The indictment also adds another charge which appears to involve what’s come to be known as “the Milley document.” In July of 2021, the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser detailed the efforts by General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to keep Trump from launching some drastic military exercise during the transition period as a part of a desperate attempt to stay in power. In a conversation that month at his Bedminster Club with two of Mark Meadows biographers, Trump waved around what he said was a copy of Milley’s plan to invade Iran, even as he conceded that it was classified, and he no longer had the power to declassify it.
This conversation was recorded by Trump’s secretary Margo Martin, since Trump distrusts the media and routinely tapes himself to avoid being misrepresented.
“He said that I wanted to attack Iran, Isn’t it amazing?” Trump says in the audio obtained by CNN. “I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this – this is off the record but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”
That document appears to have been located, and now the government has added a charge for presentation of top secret information concerning military activity in a foreign country, which is even more serious than the retention and improper storage charges he was facing before.
TL, DR? Donald Trump, who got elected by accusing Hillary Clinton of destroying evidence that she improperly handled classified documents, sent his goons to destroy evidence that he improperly handled classified documents.
And we’re still on indictment watch in DC!
US v. Trump [Docket via Court Listener]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.