July 31 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property manager was released on $100,000 bond on Monday after his initial court appearance in a superseding indictment in federal court.
Carlos De Oliveira, 56, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Miami in relation to the ongoing special counsel investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents. He was named as a co-conspirator on Thursday as he was accused of helping Trump attempt to delete security camera footage.
Prosecutors said the footage showed him and another co-defendant, Walt Nauta, move boxes in and out of a storage room they believe secret government files were stored illegally. De Oliveira was named as a co-conspirator with Trump on three new charges. That brings the number of charges against Trump in the case to 40.
His formal arraignment was delayed until August because De Oliveira had not obtained a local attorney.
The judge also ordered that De Oliveira cannot travel outside of Florida without permission.
For his part, De Oliveira faces four criminal charges: 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 the three men come amid 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 in Palm Beach, Fla., 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 from the resort after numerous boxes of documents were taken from the White House during Trump’s 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 documents were seized, 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 2-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.
