Jack Smith Piles On Additional Charges Against Trump, Indicts Mar-a-Lago Maintenance Worker For 'Lying' to FBI During Voluntary Interview

A third person was charged Thursday by special counsel Jack Smith in the classified documents case against former President Trump, according to court filings.

Driving the news: Carlos de Oliveira, 56, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was added to the obstruction conspiracy charge in the original indictment.

- The superseding indictment also charges the former president, De Oliveira and Trump aide Waltine Nauta with two new obstruction counts "based on allegations that the defendants attempted to delete surveillance video footage at The Mar-a-Lago Club in summer 2022," per the court documents.

- Oliveira was a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, according to the documents.

Can someone explain how it safeguards National Security to indict the Mar-a-Lago maintenance guy -- of course for the "voluntary interview" he gave to those friendly FBI agents pic.twitter.com/uqi4tSBkbO

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 28, 2023

De Oliveira was also charged with lying to the FBI in a January interview in which he allegedly denied seeing boxes being moved or helping move boxes.

The new version of the indictment recounts an alleged exchange between De Oliveira and another Trump employee on June 27, 2022, in which De Oliveira allegedly asked to have a private discussion in an "audio closet" at Mar-a-Lago.

De Oliveira allegedly asked the other employee how long the footage from the security cameras were stored on their computer server. When the employee replied 45 days, De Oliveira told the employee "that 'the boss' wanted the server deleted," the indictment alleges. The other employee is referred to only as "Employee 4" in the indictment, but a person close to the investigation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss it, has said that person is an IT worker named Yuscil Taveras.

The employee replied "that he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the rights to do that," according to the indictment. "De Oliveira then insisted to Trump Employee 4 that 'the boss' wanted the server deleted and asked, 'What are we going to do?'"

The indictment does not allege that the footage was actually deleted, and authorities have said in court papers that the security camera footage they received provided critical evidence in their case.