In recent weeks, we reported on a revelation from New York Times correspondent, CNN analyst, and so-called “Trump Whisperer” Maggie Haberman, who confirmed that a target letter was sent to a “low-level Trump employee” at his Mar-a-Lago estate by Garland-appointed DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith as he continues to steamroll ahead with his classified document investigation into the ex-president, despite his recent explosive 37-count federal indictment against Trump.
At the time of her reporting, Haberman noted that it was highly likely that this individual would flip on the scandal-plagued former president in the end. Now, a new report from Salon has all but confirmed that’s exactly what happened.
An updated indictment has recently confirmed the identity of “Trump Employee 4” as Yuscil Taveras, the recipient of Special Counsel Smith’s target letter back in June when the DOJ’s 37-count federal indictment first dropped against the ex-president. While we cannot confirm with absolute certainty that Taveras has been or will be cooperating with investigators in the infamous stolen document case, legal experts who spoke with Salon said there is more than a trove of evidence that points to just that.
Former federal prosecutor turned partner at Los Angeles-based Adams, Duerk & Kamenstein, Christine Adams, said, “Taveras is almost certainly cooperating because if he was served a target letter, he wouldn’t talk to the government unless he was proffering evidence or attempting to cooperate.”
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Recently, a new, superseding indictment was dropped against Donald Trump from Smith and his team that contained allegations hailing directly from information provided to investigators by Taveras following the target letter. This includes Taveras’ claim that he was approached by his fellow Mar-a-Lago employee, Carlos De Oliveira in late June 2022, and questioned how to delete the Florida compound’s security footage because “the boss” (i.e. Donald Trump) wanted the incriminating footage wiped clean and destroyed — allegations that helped lead to the superseding charges of obstruction against Trump and his co-conspirators.
The indictment states “[Tavaras said] he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the rights to do that.”
Donald Trump was recently charged with obstruction, along with 2 other co-conspirators, De Oliveira and his longtime valet Walt Nauta. However, Taveras has noticeably gotten by unscathed by federal charges in the stolen document investigation, leading experts to believe that Taveras has cut a deal in exchange for his highly useful testimony.
Adams told Salon, “Prosecutors can correlate that footage to what was occurring around the same time, which was that Trump and Nauta had talked on the phone before the boxes were moved, and before an attorney was scheduled to arrive at Mar-a-Lago to review the documents.”
“Testimony from Taveras authenticating surveillance footage of the boxes being moved and authenticating the time stamps for when the video was captured would be key to proving that Trump ordered the boxes to be moved to hide evidence,” the former federal prosecutor went on to add. “It’s the timing that matters.”
Notably, Taveras changed attorneys upon receiving Jack Smith’s target letter, as his previous attorney, Stan Woodward, whose bill was footed by a Trump-aligned PAC, had a conflict due to his representation of Walt Nauta.
“The government needs other people who can testify to what the defendants did and what they said,” Adams explains. “Taveras was at the property. He might have observed other events connected with moving the boxes or he may have been present during other conversations that could shed light on the intent of removing the documents. He might have incriminating text messages.”
Read the full report and analysis from Salon here.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
