One of the key witnesses in the government’s case against former President Donald Trump regarding the alleged mishandling of classified documents has changed his testimony after obtaining new counsel.
Yuscil Taveras, who worked in IT at Trump’s residence in South Florida’s Mar-a-Lago Club, has “retracted his prior false testimony,” a court filing by special counsel Jack Smith submitted Tuesday stated.
Taveras, who had been identified as “Trump Employee 4” in previous documents, had been represented by Stanley Woodward, the same attorney representing Trump and his employees and co-defendants Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira.
Woodward was being paid by the Trump-aligned Save America Political Action Committee, according to Axios.
According to prosecutors, Taveras had been asked by De Oliveira, the property manager at Tump’s home, to delete security footage that investigators had subpoenaed, telling him that “the boss” wanted it to happen.
Taveras refused, according to the court document, but told the grand jury that no such request was ever made.
Similarly, De Oliveira told the grand jury that he had not asked Taveras to delete the footage.
Taveras had spoken to an attorney at the federal defender’s office in D.C. after Smith raised potential conflict-of-interest issues regarding Woodward’s representation of all three defendants and potential witnesses against those defendants.
After that discussion, Taveras hired the federal attorney and, according to the filing, “immediately” changed his testimony.
“On July 5, 2023, Trump Employee 4 informed Chief Judge Boasberg that he no longer wished to be represented by Mr. Woodward and that, going forward, he wished to be represented by the First Assistant Federal Defender,” the new filing stated.
“Immediately after receiving new counsel, Trump Employee 4 retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, De Oliveira, and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment.”
You can read the entire court filing below.
Court Filing by The Western Journal on Scribd
The FBI and then the grand jury investigations into Trump’s alleged criminal mishandling of classified materials began in the spring of last year, after the National Archives and Records Administration contacted the Department of Justice over concerns regarding documents that had been accounted for.
Later in the investigation, both Taveras and DeOliveira were informed that they were under investigation for perjury and obstruction of justice.
Taveras has not been charged in relation to this investigation.
All three co-defendants in the case — Trump, Nauta and De Oliveira — have pleaded innocent to all charges.
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