(CN) — An arraignment for a property manager at Mar-a-Lago was delayed while he secures a local attorney to represent him in the classified documents case.
Carlos De Oliveira, 56, faces federal charges of concealing evidence, lying to federal agents and conspiracy to obstruct justice on allegations he conspired with former President Donald Trump to destroy security footage at the Florida resort.
De Oliveira appeared at Thursday's arraignment with Florida attorney Donald Morrell, who told Magistrate Judge Shaniek Mills Maynard he still needed to file a notice of appearance in the case.
A new arraignment date was set for Aug. 15. A magistrate judge ruled last week the defendant could remain free on a $100,000 surety bond.
Trump, who was originally indicted in June alongside his valet, Walt Nauta, waived his right to appear at the arraignment. He told the court in a filing he would plead not guilty to new charges tied to a bungled scheme to destroy security footage at Mar-a-Lago.
Nauta entered not guilty pleas at Thursday's hearing to two counts of concealing evidence.
Trump remains on the campaign trial as he vies for the Republican presidential nomination amid increasing legal peril.
Last week, the Department of Justice revealed a new indictment accusing the former president of attempting to subvert the will of voters in the 2020 election, his third criminal case this year. A trial is scheduled for the spring in a hush-money case filed in March by New York prosecutors. Meanwhile, a district attorney in Georgia is expected to file an indictment soon charging Trump and others in a scheme to interfere with the 2020 election results there.
In Florida, Trump faces 40 criminal counts, mostly Espionage Act violations, on allegations he left the White House in 2021 with “scores of boxes” containing classified documents, which he stored in unsecured rooms at Mar-a-Lago, according to the indictment. After a grand jury subpoenaed for the records in March 2022, De Oliveira and Nauta scrambled to hide the records, some of which were flown to Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
A second subpoena for security videos from the resort caused De Oliveira and Nauta to ask an unidentified IT director if he could delete incriminating footage, prosecutors say. The director told De Oliveira that “he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the rights to do that,” the indictment alleges.
De Oliveira is further accused of lying to FBI agents about his knowledge of the documents.
Federal prosecutors have told Judge Aileen M. Cannon, a Trump appointee, they did not anticipate De Oliveira’s indictment would delay a May 2024 trial date, but attorneys continue to wrangle over thorny legal issues in the case.
The DOJ has requested a hearing to determine whether Nauta’s attorney, Stanley Woodward Jr., should withdraw from the case because of conflicts of interest.
Woodward has represented, or is representing, three people who may be called at Nauta’s trial, including the IT director for Mar-a-Lago, according to the Aug. 2 motion.
The IT director hired a new attorney July 5, the motion states, only two weeks before prosecutors secured a superseding indictment charging the defendants with pressuring the witness to erase security footage.
Woodward continues to represent two other Trump employees, according to prosecutors, which may lead to a situation where the attorney is forced to cross-examine two of his clients as they testify against his third client at trial.
On Monday, Cannon ordered Woodward to respond to the government’s motion by Aug. 17. In an unusual decision, she also asked the attorney to address the government’s use of an outside grand jury to investigate the obstruction charges.
The DOJ mentioned in its motion that grand juries in Florida and the District of Columbia investigated the allegations that led to the superseding indictment.
“Among other topics as raised in the motion, the response shall address the legal propriety of using an out-of-district grand jury proceeding to continue to investigate and/or to seek post-indictment hearings on matters pertinent to the instant indicted matter in this district,” Cannon wrote.
Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor and legal analyst for MSNBC, pointed out on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that a former attorney for Trump had criticized the grand jury “shenanigans” in an interview Sunday on Fox News.
“You really had to wonder what gave her the idea for the order, since she raised it on her own, and there was nothing about the known litigation record that raised the issue she flagged, which is so wrong legally,” Weissmann wrote.
Defense attorneys have also challenged proposed rules for handling classified materials in the case.
In a motion filed late Wednesday, Woodward argued an attempt by federal prosecutors to limit Nauta's access to the confidential documents infringed on his constitutional rights.
"Mr. Nauta cannot meaningfully assist in his defense if he cannot be advised of the information to be presented at his trial in this matter," the motion reads.
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