Donald Trump’s property manager and personal assistant appeared in court today. The two are suspects in one of the three prosecutions directed at Trump.
The former president is suspected of taking classified documents to his private residence after he left the presidency. According to the prosecutor, Trump was helped to hide and destroy evidence of this by his employees.
The assistant claimed in court that he is innocent. The property manager’s response to the charges was delayed because he does not yet have an attorney in the state of Florida.
Can be seen moving boxes
Central to the indictment is the surveillance video from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property. Prosecutors allege Trump asked for the surveillance footage to be deleted after FBI and Justice Department investigators visited the property to retrieve the documents Trump had taken from the White House.
The reason is said to be that on the surveillance footage, Trump’s assistant is seen moving boxes of documents out of a storage room. According to the indictment, it was done at the request of Trump in order to hide the documents both from the investigators, but also from Trump’s own lawyers.
Believed to have lied in interrogation
The property manager must also have asked another employee in the property how long the surveillance footage is saved in the system and must then have said that the manager wants them to be deleted, the indictment states.
In questioning, he also said that he never saw any boxes of documents in the house at all, which the prosecutor believes is a lie.
Showed secret documents at the golf club
About 40 charges have been brought against Trump in connection with the so-called “document case”. Among other things, because he took secret documents home and then stored them in an unsafe manner, such as in the bathroom, in the shower and in a ballroom.
According to prosecutors, Trump also allegedly showed classified information to people who were not authorized to see it at his golf club in New Jersey.