Mar-a-Lago property manager enters plea in Trump document case
The property manager at Mar-a-Lago pleaded not guilty Tuesday to an alleged scheme to scrub surveillance footage at Donald Trump’s estate to try to hide classified documents the ex-president had.
Trump employee Carlos De Oliveira entered the plea in a Florida courtroom after two previous attempts at a deal with prosecutors were postponed.
“Good luck,” Magistrate Judge Shaniek Maynard told De Oliveira after he pleaded not guilty during the hearing in Fort Pierce, Fla.
De Oliveira was added to the government’s classified document case against Trump late last month when Special Counsel Jack Smith levied a superseding indictment, which heaped on three counts against former President Donald Trump.
De Oliveira’s previous two attempted plea dates had been postponed because the defendant was seeking local counsel.
Charges against him include: conspiracy to obstruct justice; altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object; corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, record, or other object, and making false statements to investigators.
If the worker is convicted on all counts, he faces up to 65 years behind bars.
De Oliveira stands accused of helping Trump’s valet Walt Nauta transport boxes of classified documents to Trump’s Bedminster, NJ, residence in June 2022 when FBI agents were on the hunt for them.
Weeks later, he also allegedly told the Mar-a-Lago IT director that “the boss” wanted surveillance footage wiped, though it’s not clear if that happened.
The superseding incitement alleges there was a 24-minute phone call between De Oliveira and Trump after the Justice Department made its intent to subpoena the footage.
Nauta has also been charged over the ordeal and pleaded not guilty.
Trump had been arraigned on 37 counts over his alleged retention of sensitive national security documents and efforts to obstruct federal investigators. He also faces the additional three counts in the superceding indictment.
What we know about Trump and the 18 others charged in the Georgia 2020 election probe
Donald Trump
- Former president of the United States
- Faces 13 charges related to allegedly lying about election tampering involving the 2020 presidential race in Georgia and repeatedly trying to get state officials to violate their oaths and claim there was voter fraud.
Rudy Giuliani
- Ex-New York City mayor and former federal prosecutor-turned-Trump lawyer
- Faces 13 charges for leading Trump’s election challenges while allegedly conspiring to commit crimes while impersonating a public officer and filing false documents.
Mark Meadows
- Ex-White House chief of staff
- Faces two charges over arranging a Jan. 2 call by Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to try to reverse the state’s election results, after a Dec. 23 call by Trump to Frances Watson, chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state, to do the same thing.
John Eastman
- Trump lawyer
- Faces nine charges for urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Biden electors, claiming in a court filing that about 72,000 people illegally voted in Georgia and speaking at a rally before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to disrupt certification of the election.
Jeffrey Clark
- Ex-acting assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division
- Faces two charges over writing a late December document allegedly falsely claiming the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the State of Georgia.”
Kenneth Chesebro
- Trump lawyer
- Faces seven charges including for planning for alternate electors to allegedly try to thwart the election results.
Sidney Powell
- Trump lawyer
- Faces seven charges including computer theft, invasion of privacy and efforts to defraud the state after making voter-machine fraud claims and trying to access voter files.
Jenna Ellis
- Trump lawyer
- Faces two charges including for allegedly soliciting a public officer to violate their oath by pressuring state senators to support alternate electors for Trump while falsely claiming election fraud.
Ray Smith
- Trump lawyer
- Faces 12 charges including for allegedly conspiring to supporter the alternate slate of electors and pressuring officials while helping to lead Trump’s Georgia election challenges.
Mike Roman
- Trump campaign aide
- Faces seven charges including for allegedly conspiring to support the alternate electors and committing fraud while working on the plan.
Trevian Kutti
- Ex-Kanye West publicist
- Faces three charges including for allegedly soliciting false statements by meeting with election worker Ruby Freeman for one hour to pressure her to admit to ballot-stuffing at a vote-counting center.
Harrison Floyd
- Ex-executive director of Black Voices for Trump
- Faces three charges including for alleged conspiracy to solicit false statements by helping Kutti to pressure Freeman, including by allegedly saying her safety was at risk and offering protection.
Stephen Lee
- Illinois pastor
- Faces five charges including for allegedly attempting to influence witnesses and solicit false statements by pressuring Freeman, including traveling to her home and speaking with a neighbor.
Robert Cheeley
- Georgia lawyer
- Faces 10 charges including perjury and conspiring to impersonate a public officer when presenting alleged fraud evidence to legislators.
Misty Hampton
- Ex-official in Coffee County, Georgia
- Faces seven charges including conspiring to commit election fraud, computer theft and invasion of privacy after falsely alleging voter-machine fraud.
Scott Hall
- Bail bondsman
- Faces seven charges for being involved in the Coffee County voter-machine fraud claims.
Cathy Latham
- One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
- Faces 11 charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying in a deposition about her role in pressing voter-fraud claims in Coffee County.
David Shafer
- One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
- Faces eight charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying about his role in convening the alternate electors for a meeting Dec. 14.
Shawn Still
- One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
- Faces seven charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying to state senators to falsely claim that two state officials confided there was widespread fraud.
He pleaded not guilty and has adamantly denied wrongdoing to all pending criminal cases against him.
Trump is also facing three additional criminal indictments including a 13-count indictment out of Georgia for alleged election meddling, a four-count indictment from Smith over alleged election supervision and a 34-count indictment out of Manhattan over alleged hush money payments.