We didn't get the fresh new round of Donald Trump indictments many were waiting for last week. But late Thursday, special prosecutor Jack Smith did drop a fascinating new document: an indictment, which supersedes the previous one, in the case against Trump for stealing classified documents and refusing to give them back to the federal government. The new charges stem from one of the many alleged attempts Trump made to either hide documents or hide that he had stolen them. The government is accusing the former president of ordering staff to shuffle documents around in hopes to evade federal authorities.
The most interesting wrinkle is that there's a third defendant added to the case, along with Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, who had previously been charged with working with Trump on this crime. Carlos De Oliveira is the head of maintenance at Mar-a-Lago and is now facing a possible prison sentence for allegedly assisting Nauta, on Trump's orders, to hide documents and destroy evidence. De Oliveira's role in this is fascinating precisely because of how ordinary he seems to be. He's a 56-year-old man who has worked at Mar-a-Lago for a long time, and all his neighbors and landlord could say about him is that he seems nice and likes to golf. It's a similar story with Nauta, who was born in Guam and enlisted in the Navy in 2001. Nauta met Trump after the military assigned him to valet service in the White House. When Trump left office, Nauta retired from the Navy and went to work for Trump.
