The evidence against former President Donald Trump in the classified documents case is “overwhelming”, according to a former White House lawyer.
The comments come after an updated indictment that adds new charges against Trump over his handling of documents at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida.
Trump, 77, was hit with a 37-count indictment in June. He is accused of retaining files on nuclear weapons, foreign militaries and CIA operations.
He faces a court case in the middle of next year’s US election campaign.
“I think this original indictment was engineered to last 1,000 years and now this superseding indictment will last an antiquity,” said Ty Cobb, who served as a White House lawyer from 2017 to 2018,
“This is such a tight case, the evidence is so overwhelming,” he added.
The new charges include wilful retention of national defence information and two new obstruction counts based on claims he and aides tried to wipe footage last summer.
Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at the home, has been added as a defendant.
A spokesperson called the new charges “nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt” by the Biden administration to “harass” Trump.
On Thursday, Trump told the conservative radio host John Fredericks he had handed over security video footage prosecutors now say he ordered deleted.
“These were security tapes,” he said. “We handed them over to them ... I’m not even sure what they’re saying.”
