Classified Trump Documents Case: Special Counsel Suspects Additional Obstruction Effort by Donald Trump

Special counsel Jack Smith appears to have suspected additional efforts by former President Donald Trump to obstruct the government’s investigation into his handling of classified documents, a newly unsealed court filing revealed Tuesday.

The video is from a previous report.

The opinion was released as evidence in filings in response to Trump’s efforts to have the case dismissed, ahead of two hearings Wednesday related to his aide Walt Nauta’s efforts to dismiss related charges against him.

Trump pleaded not guilty last June to 37 criminal charges related to his handling of classified materials after leaving the White House, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets. to the nation’s defense capabilities, and took steps to thwart the government’s efforts to recover the documents. Nauta also pleaded not guilty to related charges.

In March 2023, prosecutors pushed for a federal judge to compel one of Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran, to testify, presenting a previously undisclosed theory about the steps they believed Trump and his associates had taken to obstruct their investigation. alleging that after Trump was informed by his lawyer of a government subpoena for video footage from his Mar-a-Lago club, he then ordered his aides to return several boxes they had previously removed from a basement storage room. of the club, without being caught on camera.

According to the newly unsealed opinion, D.C. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote that after Corcoran informed Trump of the subpoena for video footage on June 24, 2022, Nauta launched a fight to change his plans. travel and fly from Bedminster, New Jersey. , to Palm Beach, Florida.

“This theory is supported by the curious absence of any video showing the return of the remaining boxes to the storage room, which necessarily occurred sometime between June 3, 2022, when the room was approximately [redacted] boxes, according to FBI agents and [redacted] – and the execution of the search warrant on August 8, 2022 – when agents counted 73 boxes,” the judge wrote.

The government previously alleged that Nauta made the trip to ask how long the camera footage was stored. It was on that same trip, according to the indictment, that Nauta and Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira allegedly conspired in an attempt to delete surveillance footage.

Howell ultimately agreed that the government had “probably” proven that Trump ordered his associates “to avoid surveillance cameras that he then understood to have been delegated by the government,” and ordered Corcoran to testify about a phone call from 24 June 2022 with the former president, which occurred on the same day that the Trump Organization was summoned to present the images.

Legal experts have criticized Cannon for a series of recent rulings that have benefited Trump’s strategy of delaying the case until after the 2024 election, including his order two weeks ago that indefinitely suspended his scheduling of a trial date. .

This is a developing story. Please check for updates.