Former President Donald Trump promised to continue running for president on Friday, even if he is convicted in a criminal case related to his handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and he expressed confusion about the new charges.
The former president was charged with two additional obstruction of justice charges in the case on Thursday night, which centered on allegations that Trump aide Walt Nauta and a Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker named Carlos De Oliveira attempted to delete security footage that investigators sought from the resort.
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"These were my tapes that we gave to them," Trump told conservative radio host John Fredericks. "These were security tapes. We handed them over to them. ... I'm not even sure what they're saying."
The Department of Justice alleged that Trump and Nauta had asked De Oliveira to delete the footage from Mar-a-Lago, so the video would not get into the hands of a grand jury.
The new court documents claimed De Oliveira and Nauta were captured on surveillance video moving boxes that may have contained documents with classified markings before DOJ and FBI officials visited the property to collect subpoenaed items.
It also alleged that in June 2022, on the same day that the DOJ emailed Trump's attorney another subpoena for surveillance video, De Oliveira had a private conversation with an employee in an audio closet during which he asked how long a server containing the video kept its footage.
The employee said the footage would stay on the server for 45 days, to which De Oliveira responded that "the boss" wanted the server deleted, according to the indictment. Trump also allegedly offered to provide an attorney for De Oliveira last August.
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Trump was also charged with one new count of willful retention of national defense information.
The new charges bring Trump's total to 40 in the classified documents scandal. The former president has denied any wrongdoing, pleading "not guilty" at his arraignment in June. He is now expected to stand trial in May 2024.