Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club property manager appeared in a federal court in Florida on Monday for the first time after the Justice Department named him in an investigation of Trump’s handling of classified documents.
The case against Trump added Carlos De Oliveira as a co-defendant for allegedly hiding security camera footage from federal investigators. He is also accused of helping Trump aide Walt Nauta move boxes of classified material around Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property after the Department of Justice issued a subpoena seeking the materials.
De Oliveira is facing several charges related to the Trump classified documents case, including conspiracy to obstruct justice; altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object; corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, record or other object; and false statements and representations, according to CBS.
“The Justice Department has unfortunately decided to bring these charges,” Attorney John Irving said, according to CNN. “Now it’s time for them to put their money where their mouth is.”
Prosecutors in special counsel Jack Smith’s office filed the charges in a superseding indictment last week, which could carry a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison if convicted, Just the News reported.
According to The Associated Press, De Oliveira did not enter a plea on the four criminal charges he faces because he has not yet found a Florida-based attorney who could represent him.
A judge ordered him to turn over his passport to the court and sign an agreement saying he could not leave Florida without prior authorization and would face a $100,000 fine if he failed to appear in court.
Although De Oliveira heard the charges and received pre-trial orders, POLITICO reported the court could not fully arraign him after being unable to find legal legal representation authorized to practice in the South Florida district.
His arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 10 in Fort Pierce.
Prosecutors had been reportedly investigating De Oliveira for months over his communications with Mar-a-Lago IT expert Yuscil Taveras, who oversaw the surveillance camera footage at the property.
The indictment laid out the following interaction between De Oliveira and Taveras, who is only identified as “Employee 4,” on June 27, 2022, saying that “the boss” wanted the server deleted after Trump’s team had already received a subpoena for the surveillance footage.
Trump, co-defendant Walt Nauta, and De Oliveira were all charged in the new superseding indictment in connection with an alleged attempt to delete surveillance footage at the property. Both Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty to the charges in the case.
Steve Cheung, spokesman for the Trump campaign, reportedly said the superseding indictment filed last week 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.”
Ryan Saavedra contributed to this report.