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The property manager at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida is set to be arraigned on charges in the case involving Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. File Photo by Gary I Rothstein/UPI |
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July 31 (UPI) — The property manager at Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago estate will appear in court Monday to answer to a superseding federal indictment filed last week in the classified documents probe against the former president.
Carlos De Oliveira, 56, will be arraigned at the same federal courthouse in Miami where Trump pleaded not guilty in June to 37 federal charges alleging he willfully mishandled U.S. secrets.
The superseding indictment, announced Thursday, added De Oliveira as a third co-defendant in the case and also led to three additional charges against Trump for unlawful retention of national defense information — bringing the number of counts he faces to 40.
Also charged is Trump’s longtime confidant Walt Nauta who faces five counts of concealing or withholding documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice — a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
For his part, De Oliveira faces four criminal charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice; “altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing” documents; “corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, record or other object;” and making false statements to the FBI in January when he denied any role in moving the trove of materials.
According to the new indictment, De Oliveira helped Nauta relocate 30 boxes of classified materials into a storage unit at Trump’s behest “to conceal information from the FBI and grand jury.”
Federal prosecutors allege Trump, Nauta, and De Oliveira “attempted to delete surveillance footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club.”
The charges against all three men mark the culmination of special counsel Jack Smith’s eight-month investigation into the former president’s failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his handling of secret documents after leaving office.
De Oliveira was referenced but not named in the original indictment as one of the “others” who loaded boxes of the documents onto a plane that flew Trump and his family north for the summer.
The indictment alleges De Oliveira approached a co-worker at Mar-a-Lago and asked about the property’s security footage, saying “the boss” wanted the server deleted and asked how long the videos remain on file, the indictment says. The conversation took place soon after the government sent a subpoena to Trump’s legal team for the security footage, the indictment said.
Last August, more than 100 top secret papers were seized during a raid at Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Fla., after numerous boxes of documents were taken from the White House during his final days as president.
De Oliveira worked his way up at Mar-a-Lago from maintenance worker to property manager after more than a decade.
Two weeks after the raid, Trump reached out to De Oliveira and promised to hire him an attorney as a way to keep him quiet, the indictment alleges.
Later, De Oliveira through another employee indicated he would remain “loyal” and “not do anything to affect his relationship with Trump,” according to the indictment.
Trump, who is the first president in history to be indicted on federal criminal charges, continues to deny any wrongdoing, saying previously that he had the power as president to “automatically” declassify the secret papers.
But last month, an audio recording emerged of Trump acknowledging he did not have the authority to declassify “highly confidential” materials he took with him after leaving the White House.
The two-minute recording of Trump, taken in July 2021 suggests he was fully aware the documents had never been declassified, contrary to what the former president has acknowledged publicly since.
Trump and Nauta are scheduled to go on trial next May.