The Daily Fuckup

A federal grand jury unsealed a superseding indictment on July 27, 2023, in the classified-documents case against Donald Trump, adding Carlos De Oliveira as a defendant and broadening the government’s obstruction allegations.

The new filing says De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago, joined Trump aide Walt Nauta in a scheme to delete security-camera footage after prosecutors had already sought it. Investigators say a subpoena for surveillance video was sent to the Trump Organization in June 2022, and the indictment alleges that De Oliveira later told another employee that "the boss" wanted the server deleted.

The added count gives prosecutors another theory to press at trial: not just whether records were retained improperly, but whether people around Trump tried to conceal evidence once the investigation was underway. The original indictment centered on Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office; the superseding version folds in conduct tied to the response to investigators.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and attacked the case as politically driven. The new filing does not resolve any of the underlying allegations. It does, however, put a third defendant into the case and make the obstruction allegations a larger part of the prosecution’s roadmap.