Mar-a-Lago property manager pleads not guilty over Trump documents case
15 August 2023, 16:14
Mr De Oliveira’s arraignment comes a day after Donald Trump was charged in a fourth criminal case.
Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira has pleaded not guilty to scheming with Donald Trump to try to delete security footage sought by investigators probing the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.
A lawyer for Mr De Oliveira entered the plea on his behalf during a brief hearing in the Fort Pierce, Florida, federal court, where Mr Trump is charged with illegally holding onto top secret records at his Palm Beach club and thwarting government efforts to retrieve them.
It is the third court appearance for Mr De Oliveira, who twice before had his arraignment postponed because he had not yet finalised a Florida-based lawyer, which is required under court rules.
Mr De Oliveira spoke only to answer the magistrate judge’s questions, such as whether he understood the charges against him. Mr De Oliveira and his new lawyer, Donnie Murrell of West Palm Beach, walked out of the courthouse without speaking to reporters.
Mr De Oliveira’s arraignment comes a day after Mr Trump was charged in a fourth criminal case. On Monday night, Mr Trump and 18 allies were indicted in a case out of Fulton County, Georgia, over alleged efforts by him and his supporters to illegally meddle in the 2020 election in that state.
In the Mar-a-Lago case, Mr Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, were originally charged in June in one of two cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
Mr Smith has also charged the Republican in Washington with illegally conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
An updated indicted unsealed late last month brought more charges against Mr Trump and Mr Nauta, and added Mr De Oliveira to the Florida case.
Mr Trump is facing dozens of felony counts in the classified documents case, and Mr Smith’s new indictment included additional counts of obstruction and wilful retention of national defence information.
Mr Trump and Mr Nauta have also pleaded not guilty. The former president has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr De Oliveira, Mr Trump and Mr Nauta are facing charges that include conspiracy to obstruct justice in the case stemming from secret government documents found at Mar-a-Lago after Mr Trump’s presidency ended in 2021.
Mr De Oliveira is also charged with lying to investigators. Prosecutors allege he falsely claimed he had not even seen boxes moved into Mar-a-Lago after Mr Trump left the White House.
The trial is scheduled to begin in May in front of US District Judge Aileen Cannon. If the date holds, it would follow close on the heels of a separate New York trial for Mr Trump on dozens of state charges of falsifying business records in connection with an alleged hush money payment to a porn actor.
The allegations in the latest indictment focus on security footage prosecutors say Mr Trump tried to have deleted after investigators sent a subpoena for it in June 2022. Prosecutors have not alleged the footage was actually deleted.
Prosecutors say Mr De Oliveira asked an information technology staffer how long the server retained footage and told the employee “the boss” wanted it deleted.
When the employee said he did not believe he was able to do that, Mr De Oliveira insisted the “boss” wanted it done, asking: “What are we going to do?”
Video from Mar-a-Lago could ultimately become vital to the government’s case because, prosecutors said, it shows Mr Nauta moving boxes in and out of a storage room — an act alleged to have been done at Mr Trump’s direction and in effort to hide records not only only from investigators but also from Mr Trump’s own lawyers.
