Carlos De Oliveira appears for the first time in a case about classified documents

CNN
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Carlos De OliveiraMar-a-Lago Property Manager and newest co-accused in the special counsel’s criminal case accusing former President Donald Trump and his staff of mishandling classified information made its first appearance in a Miami courtroom on Monday.

De Oliveira was indicted Thursday by a grand jury on four counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements to the FBI.

On Monday, he was advised of his rights as a criminal defendant, but did not enter a formal plea during the approximately 10-minute hearing. He was released on a $100,000 bond pending arraignment and will be arraigned on Aug. 10 in Ft. Pierce, Florida.

Trump and his aide Walt Nauta, the third co-defendant in the case, pleaded not guilty after only being indicted in June.

Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres also ordered De Oliveira not to discuss the case with potential witnesses except through a lawyer, and prosecutors provided the defendant with a list of names. Trump and Nauta were also given a similar condition for their release. In addition, Torres said De Oliveira cannot travel outside of South Florida without permission.

De Oliveira did not have an attorney listed who is able to practice in Florida, where the case will be heard. Nauta faced a similar problem when he was first charged, and although he was able to go ahead with his first appearance with Trump in June, Nauta was forced to delay his prosecution until he had a Florida attorney .

De Oliveira left the courthouse surrounded by reporters after his hearing ended. He was escorted by federal agents and his attorney, John Irving.

De Oliveira declined to answer questions when he went to the second building, including whether he had spoken to Trump since his arrest, whether he testified to a grand jury as part of the special counsel’s investigation and whether he had identified a Florida- lawyer to be hired.

“Unfortunately, the Department of Justice has decided to bring these charges,” Irving said, “and now it’s time for them to put their money where their mouth is.”

Prosecutors accused the former president in June of mishandling several classified documents he brought with him from the White House and further alleged that Trump conspired with Nauta, a Navy veteran and close Trump aide, to hide the documents from investigators.

The special counsel’s office added to those allegations Thursday, saying the three men together tried to delete security footage the Justice Department sought as part of its investigation.

After the security footage was subpoenaed by investigators, De Oliveira allegedly told the director of IT at Mar-a-Lago that the “boss” wanted the server on which the footage was kept deleted, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors also accused De Oliveira of lying to FBI agents during a voluntary interview in January about whether he helped Nauta move boxes of classified documents around Mar-a-Lago.

De Oliveira has worked at Mar-a-Lago for more than 20 years, CNN has reported. He became property manager at the club in January 2022, according to the indictment, and previously served as an usher and maintenance worker.

Several people close to Trump, as well as people who know De Oliveira personally, told CNN that De Oliveira is not in Trump’s inner circle. Eight current and former Trump aides and allies who frequented Mar-a-Lago described De Oliveira as a maintenance worker who did odd jobs around the club and who did not often interact with club members or Trump’s team.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team indicated in a separate filing Monday that investigators have obtained surveillance footage in recent weeks related to the new obstruction charges filed last week in the classified documents case. The recordings were obtained after the first indictment was filed in early June, according to the filing.

The filing also pointed to surveillance images obtained from the Trump Organization in May just before the indictment in June, according to an April subpoena.

The reference to the newly obtained surveillance footage came as prosecutors sought to correct a mischaracterization they made in a July 18 hearing before Judge Aileen Cannon about the status of their production of the video footage for the defendants in the case.

Prosecutors said they realized as they prepared discovery for De Oliveira that they had not uploaded all the footage to be turned over to the defendants.

“Therefore, the government’s representation at the July 18 hearing that all surveillance images obtained by the government prior to the indictment had been produced was incorrect,” Smith’s team said in the filing.

“With this production, which also includes CCTV footage obtained after the original indictment was returned, which relates to the new obstruction charges in the superseding indictment, the government has produced all of the CCTV footage it obtained during its investigation,” they said.

This story has been updated with further developments.