FOX 32 legal analyst weighs in on new Trump charges

CHICAGO - On a day when Donald Trump’s legal team was meeting with special council to discuss the investigation into whether the former President will be charged with attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the government on Thursday hit Trump with a new indictment in the classified documents case in Florida which is scheduled to go on trial in May of next year.

FOX 32 Legal Analyst Karen Conti says that today’s legal action likely reveals weakness in the defense’s case.

"There’s a new defendant here and the chances are when you have more defendants in a case that there’s inconsistent testimony…one person is saying one thing while another person is saying another thing."

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That new defendant is Carlos de Oliveira, the head of maintenance at Mar-a-Lago, who according to the government conspired to obstruct the grand jury subpoena demanding the immediate return of classified documents and allegedly made false statements to investigators.

Conti argues the more defendants prosecutors have in their sights, the more likely someone will be willing to turn on someone else.

"It really does incentivize people to flip and Mister de Oliveira might be a loyal employee and so may be Mister Nauta, but when faced with ten years in jail and missing their families and their children, they might just decide to jump off this boat."

Trump’s legal team has argued that the trial date – set for May of next year is unreasonable given the coming Presidential election. The timing of this latest indictment might actually offer Trump some wiggle room.

"Now with this new evidence which is very important, they are now going to need to do all kinds of preparation and that would send this trial date (they’re going to argue) past the election day," adds Conti.