Trump, aide plead not guilty to new charges
Indictment updated in documents case
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Former president Donald Trump and a longtime aide, Walt Nauta, pleaded not guilty Thursday to additional criminal charges in the case accusing Trump of illegally holding on to secret national security documents after leaving office and conspiring to obstruct the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
The plea for Trump, who did not appear at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida, was entered by one of his lawyers. The added charges were part of an updated indictment last month that accused him of seeking to delete security footage at his Mar-a-Lago residence and club in Florida. Trump was first charged and arraigned in person in June.
Last week, he indicated that he would plead not guilty to the new charges on a form forgoing his appearance. During a 10minute hearing Thursday, Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, told a magistrate judge that he had discussed the expanded charges with his client, who “has authorized me to enter a plea of not guilty.” Around the time that the hearing began, Trump was on his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Along with Nauta, Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager of Mar-a-Lago, was accused of conspiring to delete the security footage. Both appeared at the hearing, though De Oliveira’s arraignment was delayed until he finds local representation.
Nauta stood next to his lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., his hands clasped as Woodward entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
De Oliveira’s lawyer, John Irving, said he was still trying to find a lawyer licensed to practice in Florida. Donnie Murrell, a lawyer based in West Palm Beach, accompanied them, telling the judge that he thought they could strike a deal by Friday.
The magistrate judge, Shaniek Mills Maynard, scheduled De Oliveira’s arraignment for 10 a.m. Tuesday, rejecting a suggestion that it be postponed until Aug. 25. But De Oliveira did not need to attend, she said.
The updated indictment also added a count against Trump under the Espionage Act related to a national security document that he is accused of showing to visitors at his golf club in Bedminster.
Prosecutors say Trump showed off the document, a battle plan related to attacking Iran, during a meeting at the club, to two people helping his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows write a book. In an audio recording of that meeting, Trump can be heard rustling paper and saying, “As president, I could have declassified it,” but that it was still “secret.”
The updated indictment says that document was found among 15 boxes of files that Trump returned to the National Archives and Records Administration in January 2022.
Trump has claimed he never had the Iran battle plan at that meeting and was referring to something else in the recorded conversation.
The revised indictment also added obstruction allegations against Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira. It accused them of conspiring to delete security camera footage from Mar-a-Lago after the government had sought to obtain it with a subpoena.