New Mar-a-Lago defendant Carlos De Oliveira was unable to be arraigned on Monday, as he has not yet found an attorney in the Southern District of Florida to represent him, per reports from the courthouse.
De Oliveira was reportedly released on a $100,000 bond.
He’s not the first Mar-a-Lago documents defendant to have his arraignment incrementally delayed due to the counsel issue. Walt Nauta, Trump’s diet coke valet and initial co-defendant, only entered a formal plea of not guilty after two abortive attempts at an arraignment, both of which were delayed over the same issue of lack of local counsel.
De Oliveira, who was on the maintenance staff at Mar-a-Lago, faces charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, destroying a record, and false statements over his alleged involvement in an extremely Trumpian scheme to trick federal investigators who were trying to retrieve national security records that had been stashed at the club.
Federal prosecutors with Jack Smith’s office added De Oliveira via superseding indictment last week, and revealed new allegations in which Trump allegedly directed De Oliveira to delete security footage for the area where the records were purportedly kept after receiving a grand jury subpoena for the same.
De Oliveira is currently represented by attorney John Irving. He needs to hire local counsel in the Southern District of Florida before he can proceed. U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres presided over the Monday hearing, and reportedly read the charges to De Oliveira before agreeing that he could not yet be arraigned or enter a formal plea in the matter.
It’s not clear how long it will take De Oliveira to find local counsel. Nauta was initially indicted with Trump on June 8; he lodged his plea of not guilty on July 6 after finding local counsel.
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for the Southern District of Florida last week set a May 2024 trial date for Trump, though it’s not clear whether the new charges will delay that timeline.
Trump has been open about wanting a shot at recapturing the presidency in next year’s election before going to trial.
CNN —
A judge in Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday rejected efforts by Donald Trump’s legal team to toss evidence in the criminal investigation into the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia and to disqualify the district attorney investigating him.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney also rejected efforts by Cathy Latham, who served as one of the GOP fake electors in Georgia, to join Trump’s push.
“Having reviewed the pleadings, the Court now finds that neither Trump nor Latham enjoys standing to mount a challenge – at this pre-indictment phase of the proceedings – to the continued investigation into and potential prosecution of possible criminal interference in the 2020 general election in Georgia,” the judge wrote in a nine-page order.
McBurney added that, “while being the subject (or even target) of a highly publicized criminal investigation is likely an unwelcome and unpleasant experience, no court ever has held that that status alone provides a basis for the courts to interfere with or halt the investigation.”
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And trump’s too cheap to help find a lawyer for his worker.
That’s a $100,000 signature bond. He didn’t have to put up any money, just promised to pay it if he fails to appear as required.
The final sentence of this piece made the former jorno student in me laugh out loud.
Well played, Kovensky. Well played.
Delay, confuse, grift, more delay, demand innocence,
Oh and delay some more.
Lawyer, lawyer…who needs a lawyer?
Nauta delayed the same way
“It’s not clear how long it will take De Oliveira to find local counsel.”
It will take just as long as Trump wants it to.