Your Indictment news for July 27, 2023
Hi there,
Greetings from outside Boulder, Colorado where I'm sweating in 95 degree heat inside our travel trailer (don't worry, it has weak AC) and guess what? There's indictment news! So let's drink another glass of water, wipe some sweat from our brows, and get to it.
But first, hello! I'm Dan Sinker and I committed to writing up Donald Trump's indictment because it seemed like a good idea at some point and now I'm trapped in a mirror maze of never-ending indictments. Goodie for me. Also, it's free. That said, if you would like to support this work, tips are very welcome via PayPal, Venmo, or CashApp. They mean a lot. Thanks.
OK, so about today:
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Previously: On March 30, 2023, Donald Trump became the first US president to be indicted for crimes, when he was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in New York for falsifying business records connected to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. A few months later, he became the first US president to be indicted twice when the US Justice Department charged him with 37 federal counts stemming from his refusal to turn over classified documents after his presidency. Both of those indictments are now headed to trial (though not until next year) and everyone, unbelievably, is waiting for another couple indictments to drop. Which brings us to today...
Today, Thursday, July 27, 2023
While everyone was waiting on special counsel Jack Smith to announce a potential indictment in his election interference investigation (more on that in a second), the federal prosecutor zigged instead of zagged and released a 60-page superseding indictment that added new charges—and a whole new defendant—to the Mar-a-Lago documents case. Sure, why not. (Source: Original Document)
The charges stem from a new detail in the unsealed indictment: that Trump, Walt Nauta (who was charged the same day as Trump), and Carlos De Oliveira (more on him below) asked another Mar-a-Lago employee to "delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury." Whoops. All three now face three new charges around this attempt to "alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal evidence." (Source: New York Times)
The new defendant is Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, who assisted Walt Nauta, Trump's Diet Coke valet, in playing wack-a-mole with document boxes around the resort. De Oliveira is also quoted in the indictment as telling an IT worker at Mar-a-Lago that "the boss" wanted security footage deleted. The IT worker told him that he didn't believe he "had the right to do that." (Source: Axios)
Meanwhile, and also today, Trump's lawyers met with Jack Smith on his investigation into Trump's attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, yet another sign (after last week's target letter) that an indictment is potentially very close. The grand jury hearing evidence in the investigation did meet in Washington DC today, though obviously no indictments were returned. According to CNN, Trump's lawyers were not given "any guidance about timing of a possible indictment," so you know, let's just continue to wait (it's going to drop soon isn't it). (Source: CNN)
Also, in case you thought that maybe this was enough for one day, don't forget that we're now in the window of time that Georgia DA Fani Willis has said that her potential indictment of Trump for meddling in Georgia's election results might drop. In fact, according to the Atlanta News First "Security barriers were spotted going up Thursday outside the Fulton County courthouse." I'm sure it's nothing. (Source: Atlanta News First)
What's coming next: Everything, everywhere, all at once.
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So yes, it does now seem that two different indictments are set to drop any day now. But here's the deal: if any of them drop the week of August 14th, you will not hear from me because that's the week we'll be moving my kid into his dorm room at college and I will be too busy crying. I mean it. Buckets of tears.
If you want to check out something I'm working on that's entirely different from this, I'd love to direct you to Question Mark, Ohio, the sprawling and surreal storytelling project myself and novelist Joe Meno are creating. If nothing else, just go enjoy the website for The Green Fog, Cleveland's True Hero. There's also a newsletter and you can sign up on the town website.
Also, tomorrow (Friday) I'll have a new profile piece drop in Esquire that I'm really proud of, so go peep that once it goes live.
OK, back to the indictment: if this update was helpful to you, it's probably helpful to someone else, so send people to indictment.fyi/signup and they can start getting this newsletter too Thanks for spreading the word.
Finally, this whole project is done for free because I believe that good information should be available to those that want it (and because I make rash decisions and then commit to them), but a tip via PayPal, Venmo, or CashApp is always appreciated and a great way of showing your support for this newsletter, but only if you can. Thank you so much.
I'm glad you're here,
Dan