Trump and longtime aide plead not guilty to new charges in documents case
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump and an employee, Walt Nauta, pleaded not guilty Thursday to additional criminal charges in the case accusing the former president 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 to the added charges was entered for Trump by one of his lawyers after 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, who was first charged and arraigned in person in June, chose not to appear at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Last week, he signed a form forgoing his appearance and indicating he would plead not guilty. During a 10-minute hearing Thursday, Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, told a magistrate judge he had discussed the expanded charges with his client, who “has authorized me to enter a plea of not guilty.”
Two Trump employees whom prosecutors also accused of conspiring to delete the footage, Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, were also charged in the revised indictment and appeared at the hearing.
Nauta stood next to his lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., his hands clasped as Woodward entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
While De Oliveira also attended the hearing, his lawyer, John Irving, said they were still trying to find a local lawyer, which he is required to have before he can be arraigned.
The updated indictment also added a count against Trump under the Espionage Act related to a national security document he is accused of showing to visitors at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Prosecutors say Trump showed off the document, a battle plan related to attacking Iran, during a meeting at his Bedminster golf club. The updated indictment says that document was found among 15 boxes of files Trump returned to the National Archives and Records Administration in January 2022, months after the agency had sought to get them back.
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. De Oliveira was also charged with one count of making a false statement to investigators, to which he also pleaded not guilty.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.