2023-08-23 07:41:34
A key witness against former President Donald Trump and his two co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case has recanted earlier false testimony and provided new information implicating the defendants after he changed attorneys, the office said. of special counsel Jack Smith in a new court document.
Yuscil Taveras, the director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Florida, changed his testimony last month about efforts to remove security camera video at the club after it ceased to be a paid attorney for Trump’s Save America, Tuesday’s filing says.
The revised testimony led to last month’s superseding indictment against Trump and his two co-defendants.
Taveras decided to change attorneys after learning he was being investigated on suspicion of making false statements in his earlier testimony before a grand jury in Washington, DC, the court filing says.
“Immediately upon receiving further advice, the so-called “Trump Employee 4” recanted previous false testimony and provided information implicating Nauta, [Carlos] De Oliveira and Trump in efforts to remove the security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment,” the filing reads.
The filing identifies Taveras as “Trump 4 Employee.” NBC News previously reported that Taveras is “Employee Number 4.”
Taveras’ former attorney is Stanley Woodward, who also represents Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta and a variety of other world figures.
Woodward declined to comment Tuesday on the special counsel’s new filing. Taveras did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors described the change in testimony in a motion on their request for a hearing on Woodward’s potential conflicts.
They said they obtained “evidence that Trump employee Carlos De Oliveira tried to recruit Mar-a-Lago’s director of information technology (identified in the superseding indictment as “Trump Employee 4″ to remove the images. security at Mar-a-Lago after the grand jury in the District of Columbia had issued a subpoena for the images.”
“When Trump Employee 4 testified before the grand jury in the District of Columbia in March 2023, he repeatedly denied or claimed to have no recollection of any contact or conversation regarding the security footage at Mar-a-Lago,” the document states.
In late June, prosecutors had “warned Trump Employee 4 (via Mr. Woodward) that he was the target of a grand jury investigation in the District of Columbia into whether he committed perjury.”
This article was originally published in english by NBC News. For more content visit NBC News.
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