Former president Donald Trump is facing accusations that he and his aides asked a staffer to delete camera footage at his Florida estate in an effort to obstruct the classified documents investigations.

The allegations were made on Thursday in an updated grand jury indictment that adds new charges against Trump and adds another defendant to the case.

A Trump spokesperson dismissed the new charges as “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration “to harass President Trump and those around him” and to influence the 2024 presidential race.

The superseding indictment charges Trump with an additional count of willfully retaining national defence information relating to the former president discussing US military plans to attack another country during an interview in July 2021 at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.

The interview was for a memoir being written by his one-time chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who in his subsequent book named the country Iran.

According to the indictment, Trump returned that document, which was marked as top secret and not approved to show to foreign nationals, to the federal government on Jan 17, 2022.

It marks a notable shift in the prosecution’s approach to Trump’s case, charging him for retaining a document it alleges the former president knew was highly sensitive after he left office — and not just for failing to return it to the government when asked.

Third person charged

A third defendant has been charged alongside former president Donald Trump and his valet Walt Nauta in the classified documents case in Florida, court records show.

The charges against the individual, identified on the court docket as Carlos De Oliveira, were not immediately revealed on Thursday.

Trump and Nauta were charged last month by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith in a 38-count indictment with conspiring to hide classified documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, from government investigators who were demanding them back.

The records were taken by Trump to the Palm Beach complex after he left the White House in January 2021.

Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty.