Carlos...
Carlos De Oliveira is the property manager at Mar-a-Lago. He's being charged in the documents probe and was indicted last month. It took this long for him to find an attorney and he appeared in court today, pleading not guilty.Sadly Carlos is in a no-win situation having aided Trump. By doing so, he was charged with four criminal counts, including making false statements, conspiring to obstruct justice, and altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object from an official proceeding.
All this for obeying his boss and carrying out his orders.
What choice did he have and did the thought cross his mind what his future would be for doing what he did? Doubtful. I believe he had no clue what this would lead to.
My thoughts... if he goes through the process, it would certainly mean several years of prison time. I haven't checked, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's 5 to 10 years.
Do I think Trump (like the Mafia) would silently support Oliveria's family in exchange for Carlos' silence? Without question. I would go as far as to wager mysteriously a friend-of-a-friend already has that arranged.
There is always the 'What if factor' and what if he's offered a significantly lower sentence, possibly a few months in jail and parole for 10 years for turning on Trump.
My opinion is special counsel Jack Smith already has what he needs... we can only follow the news to see what happens next.
Flip or not... what are the chances, when the dust settles, will he still be working as property manager at Mar-a-Lago?
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(dials phone) Hello CDC... you won't believe this one!
There could be more potential for flipping than in an Olympic gymnastic tournament.
Regarding Mar-a-Lago recap, Trump had his valet Walt Nauta move boxes into various areas. Nara keeps presidential archives and requested he returned the documents. This went on with Trump and his attorneys for months. Trump continues to complain about the search that he calls a raid. They arranged a day and time to have his attorney present. No secret.
Trump goes on record about having clothing, personal items and memorabilia he needed to go through. Yeah... he had more than a year to sort through the boxes.
Complaining about Biden's boxes was meaningless as the majority of documents were before he was vice president and not covered on the presidential archives. Anything they was found confidential was immediately turned over. The same from Pence who was found to have some classified documents.
None of this would have happened if Trump would have complied. Instead, he instructed Walt to move the boxes, more than once. Some went to his house in Westminster and some on his jet where agents didn't have knowledge or a warrant to search either of those 2 locations.
So there were lies about the whereabouts of the missing documents.
Walt moved boxes back to Mar-a-Lago and Trump's attorney witnessed this.
Later, Trump realized all of this (illegal) activity was on surveillance video he got Carlos involved to see the help of their IT guy to remove the footage of their actions.
Trump was no longer president and in possession of classified documents.
A recording came up with Trump showing someone (probably at a party in the Westminster location) and actually discussing the documents were still classified and that he cannot declassify them. This was another strike against him as a lie to the statement that he still retains the right to hold on to classified documents.
Walt and Carlos are connected to this... they appeared on video.
So... anyone who has a different story will have to explain it to the court as the indictment was for all 3 men.
Everyone knows this. There is always the choice to just say know and notify the authorities. Anything else is a crime you will probably go to jail for. MxVeigh and Nichols comes to mind. Nichols did the crime of just keeping silent when he learned McVeigh was intending to blow up the Oklahoma City Federal Building. By doing so, he joined the crime and became a co-conspirator. Also coming to mind of course the many Nazi war criminals hung and Nuremberg with their futile defense being 'I was just following orders." Not a defense, not ever. If your boss requests you to do a crime and you do it, or keep silent about it, you will probably hear the cell doors clang behind you.
That said, Mr. De Oliveira can probably experience a significant reduction in proposed jail time from the prosecutor if he turns state evidence and testifies against those ordering him to commit the crime. Can we say Plea deal?
(dials phone) Hello CDC... you won't believe this one!
Everyone knows this. There is always the choice to just say know and notify the authorities. Anything else is a crime you will probably go to jail for. MxVeigh and Nichols comes to mind. Nichols did the crime of just keeping silent when he learned McVeigh was intending to blow up the Oklahoma City Federal Building. By doing so, he joined the crime and became a co-conspirator. Also coming to mind of course the many Nazi war criminals hung and Nuremberg with their futile defense being 'I was just following orders." Not a defense, not ever. If your boss requests you to do a crime and you do it, or keep silent about it, you will probably hear the cell doors clang behind you.
That said, Mr. De Oliveira can probably experience a significant reduction in proposed jail time from the prosecutor if he turns state evidence and testifies against those ordering him to commit the crime. Can we say Plea deal?
I wouldn't be surprised if Trump's associates were fully cognisant of crimes they were committing, nor if they were lied to and manipulated into committin said crimes.
Both parties have let the people down.
I wouldn't be surprised if Trump's associates were fully cognisant of crimes they were committing, nor if they were lied to and manipulated into committin said crimes.