Yuscil Taveras, the director of information technology at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, cut a deal with Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation to avoid criminal charges.
Taveras, who is also identified as "Trump Employee 4," has had an volatile time in this trial as he recently recanted alleged false testimony in Trump's classified documents case after he got a new lawyer.
Taveras's new lawyer apparently pushed him to recant his previous testimony after discovering his client could face perjury charges.
According to a court filing, “Represented by [First Assistant Federal Public Defender], [Trump Employee 4] then entered into a cooperation agreement with the government and testified before the grand jury in the Southern District of Florida on July 20, 2023."
Jack Smith's indictment of Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents has been all over the place full of twists and turns and the supposed false testimony of Taveras and his subsequent deal is yet another major twist.
Taveras has apparently provided incriminating information to Smith's team including information supposedly showing that Trump attempted to delete surveillance footage.
Trump has been charged with allegedly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing an object and corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, or concealing a document, record, or other object in connection with his purported order to wipe the surveillance server.
However, all of this seems to have been part of a sneaky legal strategy employed by Smith's team.
Taveras's former defense attorney Stanley Woodward claimed that Smith's team was working to "undermine attorney-client relationships” and that "the Court should preclude Trump Employee 4 from testifying at a trial in this matter."
Unfortunately for both Trump and Taveras, there is still a long way to go before this case really settles down as the trial isn't set to begin until May 20, 2024.
Until then, Taveras will have to sit tight at least knowing that he won't have Smith's team working to charge him criminally.
Smith's team has made a point of going after everyone they possibly can in order to enact a scorched earth campaign that will intimidate Trump's allies.
That strategy has been successful as Smith's team has gotten more than one of Trump's workers to cooperate with the investigation and to provide allegedly damaging evidence against the former President.
Even if Smith fails to convict Donald Trump, his team will still have won if they can make it a risk to be associated or working with Trump in the future.
