Trump pleads not guilty to new charges in secret docs case

Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Friday to the new charges filed against him for allegedly mishandling top secret government documents.

The 77-year-old Trump was charged with three additional felonies in a superseding indictment handed down last week by special counsel Jack Smith.

In a written notice on Friday to the US district court in Florida handling the case, Trump pleaded not guilty to the new charges.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, also waived his right to be present at his August 10 arraignment on the new charges.

The plea came one day after Trump pleaded not guilty in a federal court in Washington to charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump is scheduled to go on trial in Florida in May of next year for allegedly taking classified documents to his Mar-A-Lago estate and refusing to return them.

He pleaded not guilty in June to charges of unlawfully retaining national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

The additional charges filed against Trump last week by Smith, the special counsel, relate to his alleged efforts to obstruct the FBI investigation and its bid to recover the classified documents.

Trump is accused in the latest indictment of attempting to delete security camera footage at Mar-A-Lago to prevent it from being provided to the FBI and a grand jury.

Also charged in the case are Trump’s longtime personal aide Waltine “Walt” Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, the Mar-A-Lago property manager.