Donald Trump is blowing off a Thursday hearing on the superseding indictment issued against him and his associates in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. Asked about why by reporters at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, Trump offered a simple answer, Fox News reported.
"I didn't feel it was necessary," he replied.
Trump was initially charged with Espionage Act and obstruction offenses by special counsel Jack Smith in the case, which alleges that he and his body man Walt Nauta concealed boxes of highly classified and illegally held national defense information — including top-level military plans and other information that could compromise national security — from federal authorities, and even from Trump's own lawyers, in unguarded rooms at the former president's Florida country club.
Smith later unveiled a superseding indictment against Trump, Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira, alleging that they plotted to destroy security footage that was under subpoena by Smith's grand jury. The hearing, overseen by Magistrate Judge Shaniek Mills Maynard, concerned that new indictment. Per Fox News' Kyle Morris, Nauta and De Oliveira, the latter of whom still doesn't have counsel, were both present in person for the hearing.
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Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira have all pleaded not guilty. The case will be presided over by District Judge Aileen Cannon, a conservative jurist appointed by Trump who has come under fire for intervening in ways that favor Trump, and for her apparent ignorance of the law at times.
The trial is currently set to be held in May, although it could potentially be pushed back by delays. This also comes as Trump battles charges in another case investigated by Smith, concerning the 2020 election coup plot.
