Trump valet pleads not guilty in classified records case; co-defendant’s arraignment delayed

Donald Trump’s valet pleaded not guilty on Thursday to new charges in the case accusing the ex-president of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, while the estate’s property manager had his arraignment postponed because he hasn’t secured a Florida-based attorney.

Trump waived his right to appear alongside valet Walt Nauta and property manager Carlos De Oliveira at the hearing in the federal court in Fort Pierce, and the judge accepted a not-guilty plea Trump made in court papers last week.

The postponement over De Oliveira’s failure to finalize local counsel marks the latest delay in the case, which is scheduled to go to trial in May — a date Trump’s lawyers made clear they want to push back. The judge set a new arraignment date for De Oliveira on Tuesday.

Attorneys for Trump, De Oliveira and Nauta left the courthouse without commenting to reporters about the case.

An updated indictment brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith late last month accuses Nauta and De Oliveira of scheming with the Republican former president to try to delete Mar-a-Lago surveillance video sought by investigators. They face charges including conspiracy to obstruct justice in the case, which stems from the discovery of secret government documents at the Palm Beach club after Trump left the White House in 2021.

Nauta and Trump were charged in June and previously pleaded not guilty, but the new indictment added more charges and De Oliveira to the case.

De Oliveira made an initial appearance in court in July but didn’t enter a plea because he hadn’t retained local counsel. A Florida-based attorney appeared with him in court Thursday but hadn’t been retained on the case.

Trump had already been charged with dozens of felony counts in the case, and the indictment added new counts of obstruction and willful retention of national defense information.

It’s one of three different criminal cases Trump is facing this year as he tries to reclaim the White House in 2024. He’s also gearing up for a possible fourth indictment in a case out of Fulton County, Ga., over alleged efforts by him and his Republican allies to illegally meddle in the 2020 election in Georgia. The county district attorney, Democrat Fani Willis, has signaled that any indictments in the case will likely come this month.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has characterized all of the cases against him as politically motivated.

He pleaded not guilty in Washington’s federal court last week in a second case brought by Smith that accuses him of conspiring with allies to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Smith proposed a Jan. 2 trial date for that case on Thursday.

Trump is also scheduled to stand trial in March in a New York state case stemming from hush money payments made during the 2016 election, and in May in the classified documents case.

The updated indictment in the documents case centers on surveillance video from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump is alleged to have asked that the video be deleted after FBI and Justice Department investigators visited in June 2022 to collect classified documents he took with him after leaving the White House.

Video from Mar-a-Lago became vital to the government’s case because, prosecutors said, it shows Nauta moving boxes in and out of a storage room — an act alleged to have been done at Trump’s direction and in an effort to hide records not only from investigators but also from Trump’s own lawyers.

Days after the Justice Department sent a subpoena for video from Mar-a-Lago to the Trump Organization in June 2022, prosecutors say, De Oliveira asked an information technology staffer how long the server retained video and told the employee “the boss” wanted it deleted. When the employee said he didn’t believe he was able to do that, De Oliveira repeated that “the boss” wanted it done, and asked, “What are we going to do?”

Prosecutors allege that De Oliveira later lied in interviews with investigators, including falsely claiming that he hadn’t even seen boxes moved into Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House.

De Oliveira’s Washington attorney, John Irving, told reporters after the last hearing in the case that he was looking forward to seeing what evidence the Justice Department has. He declined to comment about whether De Oliveira had been asked to testify against Trump.

The new indictment also charges Trump with illegally holding on to a classified document that he’s alleged to have shown off to visitors at his New Jersey golf club.