Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the indictment against former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, charged Trump's head of maintenance on Thursday.

Carlos De Oliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s head of maintenance, was charged with altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, making false statements, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

De Oliveira is now the third defendant in the case alongside Trump and Trump's longtime valet, Walt Nauta.

Now he will have to appear in Miami in federal court on Monday for his first hearing in the case.

Scorched earth

Smith's investigation is going scorched earth and snapping up everyone they possibly can to intimidate Trump's allies and send a message that they are out to punish anyone who stands by him.

Special counsel spokesman Peter Carr issued a statement saying, "The superseding indictment also charges Trump, De Oliveira and Nauta with two new obstruction counts based on allegations that the defendants attempted to delete surveillance video footage at The Mar-a-Lago Club in summer 2022."

According to the charges, De Oliveira helped Nauta move boxes of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

De Oliveira apparently told the FBI that he, “Never saw anything," when he was asked about if he had seen classified documents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago.

He is also accused of asking another unnamed employee at the Mar-a-Lago to delete security footage.

However, there is already suspicion of prosecutorial shenanigans. Trump and Nauta were indicted months ago which raises questions as to why De Oliveira wasn't charged until Thursday.

The answer to that question could be explained by Smith's history of misconduct as a prosecutor. De Oliveira's indictment could be a desperate move to keep the spotlight on Trump's indictment and away from the Biden family.

Deflect and distract

It has become apparent over the past few weeks that there is little chance of Donald Trump being convicted in this indictment. But that isn't important to the Biden administration and Special Counsel Jack Smith.

The indictment of Donald Trump was always meant to drag down Trump's presidential campaign. They don't need to convict Trump to create bad press and get an advantage in what is looking like an incredibly tight election.

So for Jack Smith and the liberal Department of Justice, dragging this indictment and trial process out as long as possible is the goal.