The director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago has agreed to cooperate with special counsel Jack Smith in a deal that would allow him to avoid criminal charges in a federal case over former President Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, a new court filing shows.
The witness – described in a Justice Department court filing dated Tuesday as “Trump Employee 4” and identified by some media outlets as Yuscil Taveras – had previously retracted his “false testimony” in the classified documents case, after changing lawyers and learning that he had leaving himself exposed to possible perjury charges.
The special counsel’s office “immediately offered Employee 4 Trump a Non-Prosecution Agreement,” after he changed lawyers, his former defense attorney Stanley Woodward wrote in a court filing.
“Represented by [First Assistant Federal Public Defender], [Trump Employee 4] then entered into a cooperation agreement with the government and testified before a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida on July 20, 2023,” the filing said.
Yuscil Taveras is director of IT at Mar-a-Lago. Facebook / yuscil
Taveras has previously retracted his earlier “false testimony” in the Trump classified documents case. Facebook / yuscil
Taveras provided Smith’s team with incriminating information that led to the July superseding indictment of the 77-year-old former president over his alleged efforts to delete surveillance camera footage taken at Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., club and residence, prosecutors said.
Trump is accused of altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing objects and corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing documents, records or other objects in connection with his purported order to delete surveillance servers.
He was also indicted for allegedly maintaining documents on Iranian attack plans.
Trump faced new charges after Taveras gave new evidence in the Jack Smith case. GC Images
Taveras’ former lawyer argued that he should not have been allowed to testify at Trump’s trial. US DISTRICT COURT HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
Taveras responded after prosecutors raised concerns about a possible conflict of interest between him and Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta, both of whom were represented by Woodward before the IT director canceled his cooperation agreement with Smith.
Woodward claimed that Smith’s office sought to “undermine the attorney-client relationship” and he argued that “the Court should prevent Trump Employees 4 from testifying at trial in this matter.”
Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira was also charged with new charges in July’s superseding indictment based on Taveras’ testimony.
The former president vehemently denied any wrongdoing in the case and pleaded not guilty to all charges, as did de Oliveira and Nauta.
A trial has been set for May 20, 2024, in a Miami courtroom.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
