Trump and aide enter not guilty pleas on new charges in federal classified documents case News
"Donald Trump" - Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0
Trump and aide enter not guilty pleas on new charges in federal classified documents case

Former US President Donald Trump and his aide Waltine Nauta entered not-guilty pleas on new criminal charges in their federal classified documents case on Thursday in a Florida courtroom. Trump pleaded not guilty to three new charges and Nauta pleaded not guilty to an additional charge. The third co-defendant added to the case by federal prosecutors in July, Trump property manager Carlos De Oliveira, appeared at the courthouse to enter his plea, but was unable to do so because he did not have local legal counsel.

The new charges stem from a July 27 superseding indictment from Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith. In addition to the 37 charges listed in the initial indictment, the superseding indictment contains additional allegations that Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira conspired to erase surveillance footage that federal prosecutors subpoenaed from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, Florida residence. The footage allegedly captured Nauta and De Oliveira moving boxes of classified documents—which prosecutors argue Trump wrongfully retained from his time as president—from a storage room to Trump’s personal residence at Mar-a-Lago and onto a plane heading to Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey residence.

As a result of Thursday’s proceedings, Trump has now pleaded not guilty to a total of 40 criminal charges in this case, and Nauta has pleaded not guilty to eight criminal charges. Because De Oliveira lacked local counsel—he had no lawyer present that was able to enter his plea in Florida—the court rescheduled his arraignment to next week. There, De Oliveira is expected to enter his plea on the four criminal charges he now faces.

Currently, the trial for this case is set to begin on May 20, 2024. But because the superseding indictment added new charges and another co-defendant, it is expected that the May 2024 trial date will be pushed even further into the future.

Furthermore, in addition to this case, Trump also faces another federal criminal case in Washington DC regarding his attempted interference in the 2020 presidential election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has also charged Trump with falsifying business records to hide damaging information from the voting public after the 2016 presidential election. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also expected to release an indictment soon against Trump for his efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

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