The Mar-a-Lago IT executive who attacked Donald Trump with classified documents in the case is a part-time DJ and registered Democrat with a history of money troubles, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
Yuscil Taveras, 45, managed to rack up debts of nearly $750,000 despite holding a series of high-paying tech jobs and side income as “DJ Juicy.”
The father-of-two has fought back from bankruptcy but is now a key figure in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s efforts to convict Trump of mishandling top secret government material.
Justice Department files show that Taveras — described as “Trump Employee 4” — initially denied any knowledge of an alleged plot to remove incriminating CCTV footage from a server at the former president’s posh Florida residence.
The man initially known as “Trump Employee 4” in court documents has been identified as Mar-a-Lago IT employee Yuscil Taveras, first pictured by DailyMail.com
Taveras, 45, is a New York native and registered Democrat who has been in the spotlight as “DJ Juicy.” He is pictured performing for a Manhattan college radio station in 2009
But when Smith’s team threatened him with perjury charges, Taveras fired his Trump-appointed attorney, “recanted” his previous evidence and is likely to testify against his former employer if the case goes to trial.
The New York native has been scrubbing his social media and keeping a low profile since his explosive turnaround was revealed in a federal court filing dated Aug. 22.
He and his wife are currently renting an $850,000 smart home in a gated community in Lake Worth, Florida, less than 30 minutes from the Mar-a-Lago Club, where the longtime Trump Organization associate has worked for the past several years. .
When DailyMail.com dialed the number for Taveras on the estate’s door intercom system, a woman’s voice was picked up and insisted, “You’ve got the wrong number.”
The father of two young boys ignored our calls and texts and blocked our reporter’s number when we reached out via WhatsApp.
Taveras graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York in 2001 with a degree in computer information systems and went on to land a series of jobs in the luxury hotel industry.
He worked for Ritz-Carlton and Marriott before taking a position at the Trump Soho Hotel in 2010 and then at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York City five years later, according to his now-deleted Linkedin page.
When he wasn’t working in IT, Taveras was on stage as his record-spinning alter ego, DJ Juicy.
Taveras, a married father of two, currently lives in a rented $850,000 home in a gated Lake Worth community less than 30 minutes from the Mar-a-Lago Club, where longtime Trump Organization associate worked in recent years. year
Public records show that Taveras and his 20-year-old wife, Darleny Cabreja-Taveras, have had their share of financial troubles, having filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in October 2017.
Taveras is now expected to be called as a witness to testify against Trump after he retracted his “previous false testimony” last week. Pictured: Donald Trump in a courtroom in Manhattan in April
He was pictured in 2009 performing for a college radio station in Manhattan.
In 2017, he moved from the Bronx to the Sunshine State, where he is listed as the director of information technology for Trump Florida Properties. He registered as a Democrat in Florida in 2019 and voted in the 2020 general election.
However, Taveras and his 20-year-old wife, Darleny Cabreja-Taveras, have also had their share of financial troubles along the way, having filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in October 2017.
Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com show that the couple owed $738,533 to a slew of creditors, including banks, credit card companies, car leasing companies and a furniture store.
They paid back $67,133 over five years before being declared debt-free in December 2022.
The heavy toll on the couple’s finances didn’t stop system administrator Darleny, 44, from recently starting a baking company called Sweet Cake Pops & More.
The enterprising mother also worked for Trump Hotels from 2014 to 2016 and founded an IT company in 2021, Synergy Tech Solution.
New lawsuits show the federal government “foresees that Trump employee number 4 will be called as a witness
Yuscil Taveras, head of IT at Mar-a-Lago, received a ‘target letter’ from prosecutors but has not been charged
Cameras in Mar-a-Lago overlooked the storage room where Trump staffer De Oliveira and former White House clerk Walt Nauta allegedly stashed boxes
Taveras appeared before a grand jury in May, where he was asked why Mar-a-Lago maintenance manager Carlos De Oliveira called him last summer shortly after prosecutors issued a subpoena for surveillance camera footage.
The cameras overlooked the storage room where De Oliveira and former White House clerk Walt Nauta allegedly stashed boxes before prosecutors traveled to Palm Beach to demand the return of classified documents Trump kept after he left office in 2021.
Smith’s lawyers wanted to know if anyone was considering removing or interfering with the footage, but Taveras repeatedly denied that any such conversations took place.
When an updated indictment against Trump was revealed in July, it was alleged that Nauta and De Oliveira met at Mar-a-Lago on June 25, 2022, to inspect the storage unit and surrounding cameras.
Two days later, De Oliveira asked “Employee 4” how long the system kept the footage and told him that “the boss”—probably referring to Trump—wanted the server removed.
“Trump Employee 4 responded that he wouldn’t know how to do that, and that he didn’t believe he would have the right to do so,” the indictment added.
Taveras subsequently received notice from the Justice Department that he too could face criminal charges for allegedly lying to the grand jury.
Carlos De Oliveira, 56, (left) left federal court on July 31. Walt Nauta, a former Trump aide and White House clerk, has also been charged in the investigation
He responded by having longtime MAGA attorney Stanley Woodward — who is backed by Trump’s Save America PAC and also represents Nauta — fall for a federal public defender before retracting his testimony.
He “provides information involving Nauta, De Oliveira and Trump,” and the federal government “foresees that Trump Employee 4 will be called as a witness,” the DOJ says in its latest filing.
Trump, currently the leading Republican frontrunner, was charged in June with 37 charges related to violations of the Espionage Act, deliberately withholding classified documents and refusing to return them to the federal government.
He has pleaded not guilty and denied all charges in the four separate criminal charges filed against him in federal and state courts.
Nauta is charged with conspiracy to obstruct an FBI and grand jury investigation. The longtime aide to the 45th president has pleaded not guilty.
De Oliveira has denied allegations of obstruction and lying to investigators. Prosecutors allege he falsely claimed he did not see boxes move into Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House.