An indictment against former President Donald Trump unsealed Thursday night alleges his Mar-a-Lago property manager met “in the bushes” with the ex-president’s valet to discuss how the classified documents found on the estate stored can be obscured.
Carlos De Oliveira, 56, is accused of getting a Mar-a-Lago security officer to remove surveillance footage of people moving boxes in and out of the building.
When those efforts failed, the indictment says, De Oliveira met former White House valet Walt Nauta in the “bushes” on the outskirts of Mar-a-Lago after Nauta texted someone saying he was traveling to Florida because he had a family emergency – in a message with “silent emojis.”
Months later, De Oliveira would drain the resort’s pool, flooding a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept.
The indictment also alleges that in the days after last year’s FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, an unnamed Trump associate called De Oliveira “loyal” to the current 2024 Republican frontrunner, and would do nothing to improve his relationship with Trump. harm.
The property manager is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice; altering, destroying or mutilating any document and making false statements.
An indictment against former President Donald Trump for keeping secret documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate was unsealed Thursday night. He is pictured here last month
The FBI raided Mar-a-Lago last August and recovered the boxes of classified documents
He later also allegedly lied to officials, saying he “never saw anything,” despite moving some boxes himself, the FBI said.
De Oliveira, Trump and former White House clerk Walt Nauta have now allegedly conspired to “engage in deceptive conduct” to “corruptly” persuade another person to withhold information.
The federal indictment alleges that when the Justice Department announced that a grand jury would issue a subpoena requesting video from Mar-a-Lago in June 2022, Nauta abruptly canceled his plans to travel to Illinois with Trump the next day and traveled to Palm Beach instead. , Florida where he would meet De Oliveira.
Nauta reportedly gave “inconsistent explanations to colleagues” for his sudden trip, texting a person that he would not be traveling with Trump because he had a family emergency. But he used “silent emojis” in that text.
He also texted a Secret Service agent to check on a relative in Florida, but after he arrived, the indictment says, he texted the same Secret Service agent when he was in Florida for work.
After meeting De Oliveira, the property manager reportedly met with a security officer at the compound and asked him how many days the server kept security footage, to which the employee replied that he thought “it was about 45 days.”
De Oliveira then allegedly told the employee “the boss wanted the server removed” and said the “conversation should stay between the two of them”.
However, the unnamed security officer said he “wouldn’t know how to do that, and he didn’t believe he would have the right to do that.”
In the aftermath, the indictment alleges, De Oliveira met Nauta twice near “shrubs” on the northern edge of Mar-a-Lago.
It’s unclear what the two were discussing, but in October, Nauta is accused of draining a pool at the resort and purposefully flooding the surveillance video room.
The indictment charges De Oliveira, Nauta and Trump with “altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object.”
It says the indictment relates to the trio requesting that an associate remove “security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury,” it says.
Special Counsel Jack Smith leads Justice Department investigation into classified documents found at Trump’s Florida estate
Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago, is accused of moving boxes of classified documents from the White House to the South Florida estate
When asked about the boxes, the indictment says, De Oliveira told FBI investigators he “never saw anything”
The indictment also says that Nauta “personally observed and helped move Trump’s boxes when they arrived at The Mar-a-Lago Club in January 2021.”
Those boxes contained “information about defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for retaliation in response to a foreign attack,” the indictment said.
In the days following the FBI raid, the indictment alleges, Nauta called an unnamed Trump aide and said “someone wants to make sure Carlos is okay,” referring to De Oliveira.
The employee allegedly replied that De Oliveira was “loyal” and would not do anything to damage his relationship with Trump.
He then told a super PAC rep in a signal chat the same thing.
That same day, August 26, 2022, Trump reportedly called De Oliveira and told him he would get the property manager a lawyer.
It also alleges that De Oliveira voluntarily met with the FBI in January 2023.
The FBI allegedly asked the property manager about the “location and movement of Trump’s boxes and other items,” whereupon De Oliveira “knowingly made materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements and statements.”
De Oliveira denied any involvement in moving the boxes, the charges allege, telling investigators he “never saw anything.”
Walt Nauta, an aide to the former president, is charged with conspiracy to withhold classified information from the government
A statement from Trump’s 2024 campaign said the allegations “are nothing more than an ongoing desperate and flailing effort by the Biden Crime Family and their Justice Department to harass President Trump and those around him.”
“Knowing they don’t have a case, the deranged Jack Smith looks for a way to salvage their illegal witch hunt and get someone other than Donald Trump to take on Crooked Joe Biden.”
Earlier this month, the Justice Department revealed that CCTV footage from Mar-a-Lago showed dozens of boxes being “moved” by a “witness” – Walt Nauta – in the days before FBI and State Department investigators Justice visited the house for the reports.
According to court documents, on May 30, 2022, after talking to the FBI about the location of the boxes, Nauta was seen removing boxes from a room in Mar-a-Lago.
Then, on June 1, Nauta was seen carrying 11 cardboard boxes from the storage room, and on June 2, moved back into 25 to 30 boxes, before taking Trump’s attorney to the room, where he stayed for more than two hours.
Nauta, who still works for Trump, has since been charged with conspiracy to withhold classified information from the government. He pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami earlier this month.