An indictment unsealed Thursday night against former President Donald Trump reveals how his Mar-a-Lago property manager met ‘in the bushes’ with the ex-president’s valet to discuss how to cover-up the classified documents stored at the estate.
Carlos De Oliveira, 56, is accused of trying to get a security official at Mar-a-Lago to delete surveillance footage showing people moving boxes into and out of the building.
When those efforts failed, the indictment says, De Oliveira met with former White House valet Walt Nauta in the ‘bushes’ on the edge of Mar-a-Lago after Nauta texted someone saying he was traveling to Florida because he had a family emergency — in a message using ‘shushing emojis.’
Months later, De Oliveira would drain the resort’s swimming pool, flooding a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept.
The indictment also claims that in the days after the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago last year, an unnamed Trump employee called De Oliveira ‘loyal’ to his employer, and would not do anything to affect his relationship with Trump.
The property manager is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice; altering, destroying or mutilating a document and making false statements.
An indictment charging former President Donald Trump for keeping classified 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 of the boxes himself, the Feds say.
De Oliveira, Trump and former White House valet Walt Nauta are now alleged to have conspired to ‘engage in misleading conduct’ to ‘corruptly’ persuade another person to withhold information.
The federal indictment claims that when the Justice Department announced that a grand jury was issuing a subpoena requesting video from Mar-a-Lago in June 2022, Nauta abruptly canceled his plans to travel with Trump to Illinois the next day and instead traveled to Palm Beach, Florida where he would meet with De Oliveira.
Nauta allegedly ‘provided inconsistent explanations to colleagues’ for his sudden travel, texting one person that he would not be traveling with Trump because he had a family emergency. But he used ‘shushing emojis’ in that text.
He also texted a Secret Service agent that he had to check on a family member in Florida, but after he arrived, the indictment states, he texted the same Secret Service agent he was in Florida for work.
Following his meeting with De Oliveira, the property manager allegedly met with a security employee at the compound, and asked him how many days the server retained security footage, to which the employee responded that he believed ‘it was approximately 45 days.’
De Oliveira then allegedly told the employee ‘”the boss” wanted the server deleted”‘ and said the ‘conversation should remain between the two of them.’
The unnamed security officer, though, said he ‘would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the right to do that.’
In the aftermath, the indictment states, De Oliveira met twice with Nauta near ‘bushes’ on the northern edge of Mar-a-Lago.
It is unclear what the two may have been discussing, but by October, Nauta is accused of draining a pool at the resort and purposefully flooding the room containing surveillance video logs.
The indictment charges De Oliveira, Nauta and Trump with ‘altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object.’
It says the charge relates to the trio requesting an employee to ‘delete 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 has been leading the Justice Department investigation into the classified documents found at Trump’s Florida estate
Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Mar-a-Lago, is accused of moving boxes containing classified documents from the White House into 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 Nauta had ‘personally observed and helped move Trump’s boxes when they arrived at The Mar-a-Lago Club in January 2021.’
Those boxes contained ‘information regarding 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,’ according to the indictment.
In the days after the FBI raid, the indictment states, Nauta called an unnamed Trump employee saying ‘someone just wants to make sure Carlos is good,’ referring to De Oliveira.
The employee allegedly replied De Oliveira was ‘loyal’ and wouldn’t do anything to affect his relationship with Trump.
He then told a super PAC representative in a signal chat the same thing.
That same day, August 26, 2022, Trump allegedly called De Oliveira and informed him he would get the property manager an attorney.
It also claims 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,’ to which De Oliveira ‘knowingly and willingly made materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements and representation.’
De Oliveira denied he was involved in moving the boxes, the indictment claims, and told investigators he ‘never saw anything.’
Walt Nauta, a valet to the former president, is facing charges of conspiring to withhold classified information from the government
A statement issued by Trump’s 2024 campaign said the charges are ‘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.
‘Deranged Jack Smith knows that they have no case and is casting about for any way to salvage their illegal witch hunt and to get someone other than Donald Trump to run against Crooked Joe Biden.’
Earlier this month, the Justice Department revealed that surveillance camera footage from inside Mar-a-Lago showed dozens of boxes being ‘relocated’ by a ‘Witness’ – Walt Nauta – in the days before FBI and Justice Department investigators visited the home to collect records.
Court documents said that on May 30, 2022 after speaking with the FBI about the location of the boxes, Nauta was seen removing boxes from a room inside Mar-a-Lago.
Then on June 1, Nauta was seen carrying 11 cardboard boxes from the storage room and on June 2 he moved back in 25 to 30 boxes, before walking Trump’s lawyer to the room, where he stayed for more than two hours.
Nauta, who continues to work for Trump, has since been facing charges of conspiring to withhold classified information from the government. He pleaded not guilty in federal court in Miami earlier this month.
