For context, De Oliveira is the employee who allegedly drained the pool at Mar a Lago

[kpete]

For context, De Oliveira is the employee who allegedly drained the pool at Mar a Lago and flooded the room that housed computer servers with the surveillance video logs

Carlos Deoliveira, Mar-a-Lago’s head of maintenance, charged in the Trump classified documents case, per @CNN
https://cnn.com/2023/07/27/politics/trump-mar-a-lago-special-counsel/index.html

Link to tweet

?s=20

De Oliveira, 56, has been accused of draining the Florida club’s pool in October—an act that flooded a room containing its surveillance video logs. He is charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, altering, destroying, or mutilating a document, and making false statements.
https://news.yahoo.com/third-person-charged-trump-mar-221507626.html

more:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/06/06/the-dog-drained-my-pool-to-try-to-destroy-surveillance-video/

[Johonny]

1. Trump is good at destroying the lives of those around him

Example 1 billion or so of this

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. It's not clear to me....are the tapes destroyed?

Or have the tapes/data been recovered?

[Ocelot II]

5. The data have been recovered. That's where they got some of the info

in the superseding indictment.

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. Thanks!

I think Trump is gonna get 5 dimensionally screwed.

[LiberalFighter]

21. Glad to hear that. I didn't think it would be easy to wipe the data.

[FakeNoose]

3. I'm sure he can provide some good testimony against Chump

The guy (for all we know) was probably not making more than minimum wage, working for Chump. Why should he go to prison when all he did was follow orders? There's a good chance Mr. Oliviera will go for a plea deal and help the prosecutors.

[OAITW r.2.0]

8. Assuming he isn't threatened for his life or his familys'.

Wouldn't put it past Don Don to make such a threat.

[Ocelot II]

4. And Employee 4 as described in the superseding indictment seems to be

one Yuscil Taveras, who told Nauta and De Oliveira that he couldn't (or wouldn't) erase the surveillance video footage. The indictment doesn't mention the flooding incident, but it could be surmised that De Oliveira drained the pool into the server room because he and Nauta were unable to get Taveras to wipe the video files. Maybe Smith didn't think the incident was relevant because it didn't succeed, or maybe he couldn't get De Oliveira to admit to it.

[Irish_Dem]

11. Yes that is what I think as well.

The server room had to be flooded because Emp #4 wouldn't play ball with Trump and delete the info.

I would think De Oliveira would be talking as some point, since under conspiracy rules he can be charged with Trump's
crimes as well as his own? And whether the flooding worked or not it was attempted obstruction.

[Ocelot II]

12. Correct, it's still an attempt at obstruction.

But without De Oliveiras' cooperation there might not be sufficient evidence that he did it intentionally to try to destroy the server with the camera files.

[Irish_Dem]

14. We shall see if the charge of theft of classified documents focuses his mind.

I didn't realize that co-conspirators could be charged with all the crimes committed by the other
members of the group, whether they did the actual crime or not. I just listened to a video by Glenn Kirschner.

So let me see if I understand the law:

Let's say a group of people decide to rob a bank, money is stolen and the bank guard is also killed.
Later someone not involved in the robbery and murder just helps the robbers get rid of the getaway car.
Can that guy be charged with the robbery and murder too?

So that means that Trump's pool guy and body man, etc can be charged with theft of classified docs
and showing around war plans because they were part of the later obstruction conspiracy related to the docs?

It seems like there would be no incentive for the guys helping with the cover up to stay silent?

[Ocelot II]

15. That's right - all participants in a conspiracy can be charged

with any crime committed by any other participant in furtherance of the conspiracy. https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/inchoate-crimes/conspiracy/ But the only conspiracies that are charged in the superseding indictment are conspiracy by all 3 defendants to obstruct justice by keeping and concealing the documents taken from the WH and conspiracy between TFG and Nauta to hide and conceal the documents by moving them around. The remaining charges are direct crimes. See https://www.justice.gov/storage/US-v-Trump-Nauta-De-Oliveira-23-80101.pdf

[Irish_Dem]

16. DO better start talking and fast.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. And Oliveira, 56, has been working at Merd-a-Loco for how long? Head of maintenance makes mistake?

The head of maintenance presumably should know by now how to drain the pools without doing major damage like flooding equipment rooms that he also should know how to protect and maintain.

Unless he was paid to have brain fade.

[tanyev]

9. Trump's used the tactic before.

On hearing about the pool flood, author David Johnston noted that his book “The Making of Donald Trump” contains another incident, one that took place when Trump was the focus of another investigation. That previous incident took place all the way back in 1986. At the time, Trump was being investigated for failing to pay over $3 million in rent due to New York City from his operations at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The rent Trump paid for operating the city-owned property was based in part on his revenues at the site. In 1985, the rent had come to $3.7 million. But in 1986, Trump paid less than $700,000. So the city called for an audit to determine why there was such an abrupt change.

After years of investigation during which Trump and his attorneys were accused by the city of “stonewalling” and “obfuscation,” auditors reported to the city that Trump was missing most of the required documentation. In particular, over half of the monthly ledgers that were legally required to track operations at the hotel were missing.

The reason provided by Trump was that the ledgers “were discarded after they were severely damaged by water when the room in which they were stored was flooded.”

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/7/2173812/-It-s-not-the-first-time-Trump-claimed-a-flood-destroyed-evidence

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Good catch, thanks!

[milestogo]

13. Because why not put the server room near to where the pool drains?

[Irish_Dem]

17. Comes in handy if there is video you don't want your wife or the FBI to see.

[milestogo]

18. Yup.

Better than a natural disaster.

[Irish_Dem]

20. I could also make an inappropriate comment about Melania and pool boys.

About how the Trumps hire pool boys who are men of many talents, etc.

But far be it for me to be snarky.

[Disaffected]

19. Maybe it was the intent alright to

damage the servers containing the surveillance images but it is not clear to me that such would have necessarily worked. The computer hardware itself may have been damaged but the hard drives on which the images/videos were likely stored would likely have survived as the disk platters are pretty tightly sealed from the outside. Even if water did seep in, the magnetic content would likely not be damaged such that it was not recoverable.