Panic at Mar-a-Lago: How the new obstruction charges may produce even more witnesses against Trump

Special counsel Jack Smith’s superseding indictment in the classified documents case adds three obstruction counts based on former President Trump’s alleged attempt to destroy security camera footage at his Mar-a-Lago Club. The charges make an already strong case even stronger. But their real significance is the pressure Smith’s investigations are putting on Trump’s employees to turn against him.   

Often the strategy of attorneys for a chief executive under criminal investigation is to maintain a unified front with his employees who may have been involved with, or have knowledge of, the executive’s misdeeds. “We need to stick together,” is sometimes the message from the executive’s attorneys to the employees’ attorneys.    

That’s why the defection of even a low-level employee to the prosecutors can be a turning point in an investigation, which brings us to “Trump Employee 4” in the superseding indictment (reportedly, Yuscil Taveras).

Employee 4 oversaw the surveillance camera footage at Mar-a-Lago. He went from minor employee to key player when in June 2022 a Trump attorney received a draft grand jury subpoena seeking the camera footage. The next day, Trump spoke for 24 minutes with Carlos De Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago property manager. Trump’s personal valet, Walt Nauta, abruptly changed his travel plans to fly down to Florida and told De Oliveira to speak with Employee 4. 

De Oliveira met with Employee 4 and, according to the superseding indictment, told him that their conversation should remain between the two of them. De Oliveira then said that “‘the boss’ wanted the server [storing the footage] deleted.” Employee 4 replied that he did not have the right to do that. De Oliveira repeated that “‘the boss’ wanted the server deleted,” but Employee 4 still refused. There is only one boss at Mar-a-Lago.  

Later that summer, the FBI seized classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, another anxiety-producing event. Nauta called a club valet, “Trump Employee 5,” to say that “someone just wants to make sure Carlos is good,” and was assured by Employee 5 that Carlos “was loyal.”

That same day Trump called De Oliveira and promised to get him an attorney. A different attorney was retained to represent, at least for some period, both Nauta and Employee No. 4. A Trump PAC paid the legal fees. Usually, defense attorneys in these circumstances are able to share information about developments in the investigation.

So, the superseding indictment must have been a shock at Mar-a-Lago. It revealed that Employee No. 4 had been cooperating with Smith’s investigation, added obstruction counts to the ones that Nauta and Trump already faced, named De Oliveira in those counts and in a false statements count, and raised the same anxiety-provoking question, is Carlos still good? 

Whether Carlos is still good depends on a complex calculation that he and his lawyer must make. Is he better off cooperating, with the possibility of leniency, or taking his chances with Trump in a criminal trial where, if convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison? Factored in is whether Trump will be elected president next year and, if so, whether he would pardon anyone convicted with him. Other Mar-a-Lago employees, including co-defendant Nauta, are likely doing the same math.  

The juggernaut impression of Smith’s investigations could set off a domino effect as panicked Trump employees rush to make cooperation deals before “the train leaves the station.”

In fact, given the strength of the classified documents case, the train may have already left, which means that the Trump employees’ best hope of leniency may be to provide evidence of other crimes by “the boss” not previously known to Smith, and it’s a truism that valets know a lot. The panic could even produce a spillover effect in Smith’s Jan. 6 inquiry that encourages fence-sitting witnesses to turn on Trump.

The irony is that Trump has said “I value loyalty above everything all else” and that the “flipping” of witnesses, that is their cooperation with prosecutors, “almost ought to be illegal.” As Smith’s investigations move forward, Trump is likely to witness less loyalty and more flipping.   

Gregory J. Wallance was a federal prosecutor in the Carter and Reagan administrations and a member of the ABSCAM prosecution team, which convicted a U.S. senator and six representatives of bribery. His newest book, “Into Siberia: George Kennan’s Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia” is due out in December.