Remarkable new charges against Donald Trump and two associates in the classified documents case Thursday significantly deepened the ex-president’s legal plight and dragged the 2024 election further into an unprecedented legal quagmire.
Remarkable new charges against Donald Trump and two associates in the classified documents case Thursday significantly deepened the ex-president’s legal plight and dragged the 2024 election further into an unprecedented legal quagmire.
Special counsel Jack Smith alleged, following his initial 37 charges in the case, that Trump requested the deletion of security footage at his Mar-a-Lago resort to prevent it from being provided to a grand jury. Additionally, prosecutors now allege that Trump and two aides conspired to keep classified White House documents and conceal them from the grand jury, including by suggesting to one of his attorneys that he lie to investigators.
Much about Trump’s presidency and post-presidency has stretched the boundaries of credulity. But if Smith’s new counts are proven, they will create a historic scenario that represents yet another challenge to the country’s constitutional order from its former commander in chief, who is currently the front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination.
The special counsel is effectively alleging that an ex-president deliberately obstructed and defrauded the government he once led and the rule of law he was sworn to uphold. That ex-president is running to once again be the guardian of the nation’s secrets and guarantor of its constitutional system, raising profound questions about his suitability to return to the Oval Office.
“It’s a stunning development,” said former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who is now a CNN legal and national security analyst.
The detail in Smith’s new charges – and their apparent implication that Trump brazenly believes he is immune from the rules that cover other presidents or citizens – left many observers shocked, most notably over one account in which one staff member is alleged to have said that “the boss” wanted a server deleted.
“These people are lying, they are obstructing the investigation, they are destroying evidence – it’s just so blatant. … This is a group of people who are all trying to cover it up,” said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, the former chief assistant district attorney in Manhattan, who is now a CNN legal analyst.
According to the updated indictment, Trump not only kept documents to which he was not entitled but potentially broke the law to keep them and conspired to thwart a criminal investigation. The old maxim in the Watergate scandal, which led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon, is echoing down through history regarding another case of alleged presidential wrongdoing: it is not the crime that incriminates a person but the attempt to cover it up.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has already pleaded not guilty to the earlier counts in the case. His team immediately dismissed the additional ones from the independent prosecutor as an attempt by the Biden administration to distract from the legal problems of the current president’s son, Hunter, after his plea arrangement with the government collapsed on Wednesday.
