By Carlos De Oliveira, the newest co-defendant in the federal criminal case over former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents, finally entered a not guilty plea on Tuesday after failing to do so twice before.
De Oliveira pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts related to an alleged attempt to delete surveillance footage from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
De Oliveira, a property manager at Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, resort, was added to the case in a superseding indictment filed late last month.
The arraignment took place in U.S. District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida, before a federal magistrate judge. It had been delayed on two prior occasions due to issues securing local counsel.
“Good luck,” Magistrate Judge Shaniek Maynard told De Oliveira in a brief hearing that began at 10 a.m. ET.
The superseding indictment also charged Trump with three new counts on top of the 37 he already faces in the case, which center on his retention of classified records after leaving the White House in 2021.
Walt Nauta, Trump’s valet and co-defendant in the original indictment filed by special counsel Jack Smith, also received additional charges in the superseding indictment.
Nauta and De Oliveira had both appeared in court last week to enter pleas on the latest batch of charges. Nauta successfully pleaded not guilty in that hearing, but De Oliveira’s arraignment was postponed until Tuesday morning because his local attorney, Larry Murrell, had not presented all the necessary court filings in the case.
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Trump had already pleaded not guilty to the new charges and waived his appearance in last week’s hearing.
The new counts charge all three defendants with plotting to delete security footage that had been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in June 2022, according to the indictment. Trump also received a new count of retaining a classified document, which he had allegedly shown to multiple people without security clearances at his New Jersey golf club after he was no longer president. News outlets have published an audio tape of that meeting.
Trump’s charges in Florida are one of four active criminal cases against him as he seeks the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He was most recently indicted Monday night in Georgia, on charges related to his efforts to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in the state’s 2020 election.
