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Special Counsel Jack Smith has added a third defendant in the Department of Justice (DOJ) classified-documents indictment against former President Donald Trump.
Federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment on Thursday that includes fresh charges for the former president, who is accused of mishandling classified documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in August. The court documents also listed Carlos De Oliveira—described as a property manager for Trump's estate—who's accused of assisting the former president and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, in obstructing governmental efforts to retrieve the sensitive materials.
Trump is now facing 40 counts in the DOJ investigation. He previously pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts in the indictment handed down in June, and has signaled that he will likely do the same to the three new charges.
"This is nothing more than a continued desperate and flailing attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their Department of Justice to harass President Trump and those around him," Trump's campaign said in a statement shared with Newsweek on Thursday.
Nauta, Trump's personal aide, has also pleaded not guilty to accusations that he assisted in concealing the classified documents in order to obstruct justice. John Irving, an attorney representing De Oliveira in the case, declined comment when reached by The New York Times on Thursday.
De Oliveira Helped Nauta Move Document Boxes: Feds
One of De Oliveira's charges stems from accusations that he aided in Trump and Nauta's efforts to obstruct the federal government from retrieving all classified documents in the former president's possession following a grand jury subpoena on May 11, 2022.
According to the indictment, Nauta was instructed by Trump to move several of the boxes containing classified materials out of the "storage room" where an attorney for the former president was supposed to certify that Trump was complying with the federal subpoena.
De Oliveira is accused in the indictment of helping Nauta move about 30 document boxes back into the storage room in order to mislead the attorney, while prosecutors said that 64 boxes were originally transported out of the location. The attorney conducting the compliance check was not told by Nauta or Trump that there were more classified documents than the 30 boxes present in the room during the check.
FBI agents later found 75 additional boxes in the storage room in question during their search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022.
De Oliveira Accused of Ordering IT Director to Erase Video
De Oliveira is also accused in Trump's alleged efforts to delete surveillance footage after federal prosecutors requested in a subpoena on June 22, 2022, to have access to the videos taken by cameras on the same floor as the storage room that was holding the classified documents.
According to the indictment, on June 27, 2022, De Oliveira asked to meet with Trump's director of information technology. During the exchange, De Oliveira told the employee that the conversation "should remain between the two of them" and asked how many days the surveillance video server stored footage. The employee indicated that the server retained roughly 45 days of film.
De Oliveira then told the IT director that "the boss" wanted the security server deleted, states the indictment. The employee responded that Trump's supervisor of security would need to authorize wiping the server. De Oliveira reportedly insisted that the request was from "the boss" and asked the employee, "What are we going to do?"
Prosecutors are charging De Oliveira with two counts in connection to the security footage.
De Oliveira's Loyalty to Trump Questioned: Indictment
Roughly two weeks after federal agents recovered all classified documents in Trump's possession in August 2022, De Oliveira's loyalty to the former president was reportedly questioned by Nauta, according to the federal indictment.
On August 26, 2022, Nauta supposedly called a valet at Mar-a-Lago and said something along the lines of, "someone just wants to make sure Carlos is good."
The valet responded, states the indictment, that De Oliveira "was loyal" and "would not do anything to affect his relationship with Trump." The valet later confirmed in a Signal group chat with Nauta and a member of Trump's political action committee that De Oliveira would be faithful to the former president, federal prosecutors said.
Later that same day, prosecutors added, Trump called De Oliveira and promised to get him an attorney.
De Oliveira Charged With Lying to FBI Agents
De Oliveira's final charge stems from accusations that he made several false statements during his interview with the FBI in January 2023 as officials were investigating how classified documents had been stored at Mar-a-Lago.
According to a transcript of the voluntary interview, De Oliveira denied playing a role in any group to help move the boxes containing classified documents once they had arrived at Mar-a-Lago from the White House. He also claimed to have no knowledge of where the boxes were kept or what items would have been stored in them.
When asked if he was aware of when the boxes were being moved into Trump's estate, De Oliveira reportedly told the FBI that he "never saw anything."
"Even his personal stuff, like his clothes—and furniture, nothing?" federal investigators asked.
"Never. Never saw anything," De Oliveira repeated.
About the writer
Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more