Donald Trump says he handed over security tapes after being accused of asking employee to delete footage

The former US president makes the remarks a day after prosecutors added new charges alleging he ordered employees at his Florida resort to delete the videos.

News reporter @samuelosborne93

Friday 28 July 2023 16:41, UK

Donald Trump has denied wrongdoing in his handling of security tapes sought by federal investigators.

It came a day after prosecutors added new charges alleging the former US president ordered employees at his Florida resort to delete the videos.

Mr Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, told conservative radio host John Fredericks he believed he was not required to hand over security tapes from his Mar-a-Lago resort but did so anyway.

"These were security tapes. We handed them over to them," he said. "I'm not even sure what they're saying."

The indictment adds new charges against the former president, who has been charged with illegally retaining hundreds of secret papers, and names an additional defendant.

A trial date for Mr Trump has been set for 20 May next year.

Prosecutors have accused Mr Trump of scheming with his valet, Walt Nauta, and a Mar-a-Lago property manager, Carlos De Oliveira, to conceal the video from federal investigators after they issued a subpoena for it.

They allege Mr De Oliveira told another employee that "the boss" wanted a server hosting the security footage to be deleted.

When the member of staff said they did not know how and believed they did not have the right to, Mr De Oliveira is said to have asked: "What are we going to do?"

Video from the property would ultimately play a significant role in the investigation because prosecutors said it captured Mr Nauta moving boxes of documents in and out of a storage room - including a day before an FBI visit to the property.

The indictment alleges the files were moved at Mr Trump's direction.

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Trump says he will not end presidential campaign if convicted

"They went after two fine employees yesterday, fine people," Mr Trump said. "They're trying to intimidate people so that people go out and make up lies about me. Because I did nothing wrong."

Mr Trump said he would not end his 2024 presidential campaign if he was convicted and sentenced on the various charges against him.

The three new criminal counts filed against Mr Trump on Thursday brought the total to 40.

Trump allegedly waved around classified attack plan

The updated indictment includes an additional account of wilfully retaining national defence information relating to the former president discussing US military plans to attack another country during an interview in July 2021 at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The interview was for a memoir written by his once chief of staff Mark Meadows, who in his book named the country as Iran.

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Prosecutors allege Mr Trump waved around the classified attack plan to his guests, saying: "This is secret information" and claiming "as president I could have declassified it" but had not.

Mr Trump has denied he had secret documents with him when he spoke.

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According to the indictment, Mr Trump returned the document, marked as top secret and not approved to be shown to foreign nationals, to the federal government on 17 January last year.

Both Mr Trump and Mr Nauta have pleaded not guilty. Mr De Oliveira is due in court in Florida on Monday.