Mar-a-Lago employee pleads not guilty in Trump docs case
FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira pleaded not guilty Tuesday to scheming with Donald Trump to try to delete security footage sought by investigators probing the former president’s hoarding of classified documents.
An attorney for De Oliveira entered the plea on his behalf during a brief hearing in the Fort Pierce federal court, where Trump is charged with holding onto top-secret records at his Palm Beach club and thwarting government efforts to retrieve them.
It’s the third court appearance for De Oliveira, who twice before saw his arraignment postponed because he hadn’t yet finalized a Florida-based attorney, which is required under court rules.
De Oliveira spoke only to answer the magistrate judge’s questions, such as whether he understood the charges against him. De Oliveira and his new attorney, Donnie Murrell of West Palm Beach, walked out of the courthouse without speaking to reporters.
De Oliveira’s arraignment comes a day after Trump was charged in a fourth criminal case. On Monday night, Trump and 18 allies were indicted in a case in 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, Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, were originally charged in June in one of two cases brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Smith also has charged Trump in Washington with illegally conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
An updated indictment unsealed late last month brought more charges against Trump and Nauta, and added De Oliveira to the Florida case. Trump is facing dozens of felony counts in the classified documents case, and Smith’s new indictment included additional counts of obstruction and willful retention of national defense information.
Trump and Nauta have also pleaded not guilty.
The former president has denied any wrongdoing.
De Oliveira, Trump and Nauta are facing charges that include conspiracy to obstruct justice in the case stemming from secret government documents found at Mar-a-Lago after Trump’s presidency ended in 2021. De Oliveira is also charged with lying to investigators. Prosecutors allege he falsely claimed he hadn’t even seen boxes moved into Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House.
The trial is scheduled to begin in May.
The allegations in the Florida indictment focus on security footage that prosecutors say Trump tried to have deleted after investigators sent a subpoena for it in June 2022. Prosecutors have not alleged the footage was actually deleted.
Video from Mar-a-Lago could ultimately become vital to the government’s case because, prosecutors said, it shows Nauta moving boxes in and out of a storage room — an act alleged to have been done at Trump’s direction and in effort to hide records not only from investigators but also from Trump’s own lawyers.