‘This Is Richard Nixon All Over Again’
Trump falls into deeper legal peril with new obstruction charges
Evidence is mounting that Donald Trump’s been personally involved in trying to obstruct the federal investigation into his handling of classified and sensitive government documents, as prosecutors added additional charges to the ones already facing the former president.
A grand jury in the Southern District of Florida has charged Trump with a new count of willful retention of National Defense Information in the case related to his handling of classified documents. The new charge stems from a top-secret presentation he waved at aides at his Bedminster, N.J., resort.
A new defendant was also added to the indictment against Trump and his aide Walt Nauta. Carlos de Oliveira, 56, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., was added to the obstruction conspiracy charged in the original indictment.
The superseding indictment charges Trump, De Oliveira and Nauta with two new obstruction counts based on allegations that they instructed an unnamed, fourth worker to delete surveillance video footage at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence last summer “to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.”
The indictment charged De Oliveira with false statements and representations made in a interview with the FBI on Jan. 13, 2023.
“I think the thing that is so damning about this, what is suggested in this indictment, is the length to which Donald Trump went. If they can prove, and it looks like they have the evidence from this indictment, that he had the state of mind that he was sending directions and directly involved and engaged in conversations including getting rid of the potential evidence that was going to demonstrate that he was lying publicly and to investigators when he was saying he had turned over all the documents,” said Maya Wiley, a prominent attorney and civil rights activist.
Particularly damning for Trump are the allegations that he directly ordered employees at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida to delete surveillance footage, to keep it out of the hands of investigators.
“Obstruction is really damaging for the president because not only is it a standalone crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison, but it shows consciousness of guilt for the other crimes that are violations of the Espionage Act,” said Dave Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach County, Fla. “Why would you want to destroy the video? Because you knew what you were doing was wrong. So this helps juries believe that the defendant is guilty.
“Obstruction is a double whammy. It’s its own crime and will help convict the former president — and perhaps Nauta and De Oliveira — of other crimes. He’s got a lot to be worried about right now,” Aronberg added.
Trump's alleged behavior traces itself back directly to another former president: Richard Nixon.
Nixon, ultimately, was brought down much more for the cover-up than the original crimes in the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s.
“This is Richard Nixon all over again. The biggest problem with Richard Nixon when it came to Watergate was the cover-up, and what we have here is an obvious cover-up with regards to trying to prevent law enforcement from access to potential evidence in a crime,” said former White House chief of staff and one-time defense secretary Leon Panetta. “And that mistake of trying to prevent material from being presented to law enforcement is ultimately what brought Nixon down and I think it’s what is ultimately going to bring Trump down as well.”
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