Trump hit with Superseding Indictment

The DOJ's PR move after yesterday's disaster

Right on cue, after the DOJ’s exceedingly friendly (and embarrassing) plea deal with Hunter Biden was put on hold, Special Counsel Jack Smith has filed a superseding indictment against Donald J. Trump.

The superseding indictment, filed today, includes:

• a new charge relating to the willful retention of national defense information (18 USC § 793);

• new allegations concerning the preexisting charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice (18 USC § 1512(k));

• a new charge of altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object (18 USC §§ 1512(b)(2)(B), 2);

• a new defendant: Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira.

For starters, much of the superseding indictment is the same as the original indictment from early June, 2023. The basic facts asserted by Special Counsel Smith haven’t changed. There are, however, new facts – and a new defendant – which complicate Trump’s defense.