Topline
A key witness in the DOJ’s classified documents case against former President Donald Trump retracted his earlier “false testimony,” according to a Tuesday federal court filing, likely adding to Trump’s list of legal headaches in the federal case over his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Florida resort.
The IT Director at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Resort has retracted his false testimony, federal prosecutors … [+]
Key Facts
In a filing made with the Southern District of Florida federal court, prosecutors said the director of information technology at Mar-A-Lago (identified as Trump Employee Number 4 in the indictment) retracted his false testimony after changing lawyers last month.
The filing notes that the worker—who has been identified by the media as Yuscil Taveras—“repeatedly denied or claimed not to recall” having any conversations about deleting the surveillance footage at Mar-A-Lago during his grand jury testimony.
Last month, the witness retracted his “prior false testimony” and “provided information that implicated” Trump and his two co-defendants and staffers Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira.
The witness decided to drop his attorney Stanley Woodward, who also represents Nauta and is partly funded by a pro-Trump PAC, after receiving advice from an independent counsel regarding Woodward’s potential conflicts of interest in the case.
Key Background
The indictment alleges that Mar-A-Lago property manager de Oliveira spoke to the witness and informed him that “the boss” wanted the surveillance footage held on servers at the resort deleted. De Oliveira and Nauta, Trump’s valet, were caught on surveillance cameras in June last year moving around 30 boxes of documents at Mar-A-Lago, the indictment stated. Both Nauta and de Oliveira have been charged for allegedly providing false statements to investigators.
Tangent
Last month, several outlets reported that the unnamed “Trump Employee 4” mentioned in the indictment was Taveras. After allegedly being asked to delete the footage, Taveras told de Oliveira that he may be unable to do that as he was unsure if he had the requisite rights to access the server. Taveras then allegedly informed Oliveira that he would have to get in touch with another employee, the supervisor of security for Trump’s business organization. De Oliveira, however, allegedly insisted that the “boss”—presumed to be Trump—wanted the videos deleted and asked Taveras “what are we going to do?”
Further Reading
‘Trump Employee 4’ In Classified Documents Indictment Identified As Yuscil Taveras, Mar-A-Lago’s IT Director (Forbes)
Who Is Carlos De Oliveira? The Mar-A-Lago Employee Indicted With Trump In Classified Documents Case (Forbes)
Who Is Walt Nauta? Aide Indicted With Trump In Mar-A-Lago Documents Case (Forbes)
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