Mar-a-Lago property manager enters plea in Trump document case

The property manager at Mar-a-Lago pleaded not guilty Tuesday to an alleged scheme to scrub surveillance footage at Donald Trump’s estate to try to hide classified documents the ex-president had.

Trump employee Carlos De Oliveira entered the plea in a Florida courtroom after two previous attempts at a deal with prosecutors were postponed.

“Good luck,” Magistrate Judge Shaniek Maynard told De Oliveira after he pleaded not guilty during the hearing in Fort Pierce, Fla.

De Oliveira was added to the government’s classified document case against Trump late last month when Special Counsel Jack Smith levied a superseding indictment, which heaped on three counts against former President Donald Trump.

De Oliveira’s previous two attempted plea dates had been postponed because the defendant was seeking local counsel.

Charges against him include: conspiracy to obstruct justice; altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object; corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, record, or other object, and making false statements to investigators.


Carlos De Oliveira
Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira (center, in blue tie) pleaded not guilty to all counts against him.
AP

Donald Trump
Ex-President Donald Trump has decried the federal investigation behind the indictment against him as a “witch hunt.”
AP

Mar-a-Lago
Mar-a-Lago is the former president’s Palm Beach, Fla., resort.
AP

If the worker is convicted on all counts, he faces up to 65 years behind bars.

De Oliveira stands accused of helping Trump’s valet Walt Nauta transport boxes of classified documents to Trump’s Bedminster, NJ, residence in June 2022 when FBI agents were on the hunt for them. 

Weeks later, he also allegedly told the Mar-a-Lago IT director that “the boss” wanted surveillance footage wiped, though it’s not clear if that happened.


Jack Smith
Top federal prosecutor Jack Smith was tasked with overseeing the Department of Justice’s investigations of Donald Trump after the former president launched his 2024 campaign in November.
AP

The superseding incitement alleges there was a 24-minute phone call between De Oliveira and Trump after the Justice Department made its intent to subpoena the footage.

Nauta has also been charged over the ordeal and pleaded not guilty.

Trump had been arraigned on 37 counts over his alleged retention of sensitive national security documents and efforts to obstruct federal investigators. He also faces the additional three counts in the superceding indictment.


Donald Trump
Donald Trump is the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner, despite all the criminal cases against him.
AP

He pleaded not guilty and has adamantly denied wrongdoing to all pending criminal cases against him.

Trump is also facing three additional criminal indictments including a 13-count indictment out of Georgia for alleged election meddling, a four-count indictment from Smith over alleged election supervision and a 34-count indictment out of Manhattan over alleged hush money payments.