Former President Donald Trump‘s third co-defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, is slated to be arraigned Thursday morning in Florida to enter a plea for charges added July 27 to an indictment in the classified documents case.
Trump has said he will not attend the arraignment hearing at 10:30 a.m. at the Alto Lee Adam Adams Sr. United States Courthouse in Fort Pierce. He waived his right to appear in court filings and also pleaded not guilty to three new charges added in late July, including two counts of obstruction and one count of willfully retaining national defense information.
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Trump’s other co-defendant, Walt Nauta, will be arraigned on two new obstruction counts added by the superseding indictment. He has the ability to waive his appearance, though court records show he has not done so yet. Nauta attended a pretrial hearing on July 18 before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, which was intended to discuss how classified records will be handled in the May 2024 trial.
De Oliveira, an employee of Mar-a-Lago who was added as Trump’s latest co-defendant last month, is expected to appear in Fort Pierce on Thursday at 10 a.m. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Shaniek Mills Maynard to enter a plea on four counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, concealing an object, and making a false statement.
During his first appearance at a Miami federal court on July 31, De Oliveira entered no plea after a judge postponed his arraignment until he could find a local lawyer. He had shown up to court with his Washington, D.C.-based attorney, John Irving.
The initial charges filed against the former president in June by special counsel Jack Smith allege Trump mishandled troves of classified documents he took from the White House and coordinated with members of his staff to hide them from investigators seeking their return to Washington.
Trump now faces 40 counts related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents and has denied wrongdoing.
The judge presiding over De Oliveira’s hearing will determine if bail is necessary for the defendant to be released. He was previously released on a $100,000 bond pending trial and was ordered not to discuss the case with potential witnesses except through counsel, and he cannot travel outside South Florida without permission.
The main presiding judge over the case, Cannon, will also soon decide on a request by Trump over the government’s desired protective order in the case, which seeks to prevent the former president from releasing any classified materials that will be shared with his team in the case.
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Trump on Wednesday afternoon asked Cannon to allow the government to reestablish a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, at Mar-a-Lago so that he and his attorneys can discuss classified information without the need to travel to a SCIF at a separate location, arguing it would be more cost-effective.
Smith’s team has opposed previous requests by Trump’s lawyers to allow the former president to review and discuss evidence in the case at Mar-a-Lago or at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club.
