- cross-posted to:
- politics
- cross-posted to:
- politics
Former US President Donald Trump has been implicated by one of his employees in a classified documents case, according to a court filing.
Yuscil Taveras, an IT director identified as Trump Employee 4 in legal documents, changed his testimony after switching lawyers, say prosecutors.
He now accuses Mr Trump and two aides of “efforts to delete security camera footage”, says the filing.
The 77-year-old ex-president faces 40 charges in the case.
Mr Trump, his close personal aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira have all pleaded not guilty.
The former president is accused of mishandling the storage of sensitive files at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, and trying to cover up the alleged crime by deleting security footage.
The court document filed on Tuesday says Mr Taveras changed lawyers after special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the case, notified him he was being investigated for perjury.
His former attorney also represents Mr Trump’s co-defendant Mr Nauta.
During grand jury testimony in March this year, Mr Taveras “repeatedly denied or claimed not to recall any contacts or conversations about the security footage at Mar-a-Lago”.
Prosecutors said they obtained evidence that Mr De Oliveira had asked Mr Taveras to delete the CCTV footage after investigators demanded the video as they tracked the movement of boxes containing the documents inside the resort.
The chief judge overseeing the federal grand jury, James Boasberg, offered a public defender to Mr Taveras after prosecutors pointed out a conflict of interest for his lawyer Stanley Woodward, who was being partly funded by Mr Trump’s Save America political action committee.
“Advising Trump Employee 4 to correct his sworn testimony would result in testimony incriminating Mr Woodward’s other client, Nauta; but permitting Trump Employee 4’s false testimony to stand uncorrected would leave Trump Employee 4 exposed to criminal charges for perjury,” the filing said.
On 5 July, Mr Taveras informed Judge Boasberg that he no longer wished to be represented by Mr Woodward and would instead accept the offer of legal aid.
“Immediately after receiving new counsel, Trump Employee 4 retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, [Carlos] De Oliveira, and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment,” the court filing says.
Mr Taveras is not charged in the case, which is scheduled for trial next May.
Mr Trump is fighting criminal charges in three other cases.
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I was just thinking, this guy is 77. I hope his kids were in on this too. You just know one of them is going to try some shit in the future if they aren’t given a reason not to.
Jared Kushner saw his father go to jail in 2005. He just made sure that his father got a pardon in 2020.
I think the goal is to “win” enough power/money that consequences don’t apply, like his buddy Mohammed bin Salman.
MAGAs shivving each other:
The court document filed on Tuesday says Mr Taveras changed lawyers after special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the case, notified him he was being investigated for perjury.
And further below:
“Immediately after receiving new counsel, Trump Employee 4 retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, [Carlos] De Oliveira, and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment,” the court filing says.
This is so special! This is HILARIOUS! Somebody help me, I’m dying. LMAO
Trump getting brought down by archivists and IT managers is one of the funniest things about this whole thing. Revenge of the Nerds.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Yuscil Taveras, an IT director identified as Trump Employee 4 in legal documents, changed his testimony after switching lawyers, say prosecutors.
Mr Trump, his close personal aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira have all pleaded not guilty.
The former president is accused of mishandling the storage of sensitive files at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, and trying to cover up the alleged crime by deleting security footage.
The court document filed on Tuesday says Mr Taveras changed lawyers after special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the case, notified him he was being investigated for perjury.
During grand jury testimony in March this year, Mr Taveras “repeatedly denied or claimed not to recall any contacts or conversations about the security footage at Mar-a-Lago”.
The chief judge overseeing the federal grand jury, James Boasberg, offered a public defender to Mr Taveras after prosecutors pointed out a conflict of interest for his lawyer Stanley Woodward, who was being partly funded by Mr Trump’s Save America political action committee.
The original article contains 403 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 58%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
We love you, good bot.
This is great, but is also going to result in alot of tinfoil hat wearers claiming: “The Dems and Hunter Biden’s laptop got to him! They threatened him and his family and forced him to testify against Trump!”
They’ll say that regardless. You can’t try to manage their crazy by trying to placate them. First of all, it won’t work, because they can’t be satisfied, and second, then they’ll just move on to something more crazy that you’ll have to accommodate.
“But?”
Who cares? They already do this
