News: 1690592345

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Florida man accused of hoarding America's secrets faces fresh charges

(2023/07/29)


Federal prosecutors have expanded their criminal case against a famous Floridian and his loyal minions for allegedly mishandling national security secrets and not being forthright about the storage and handling of hundreds of classified documents.

The celebrity defendant, a 77-year-old jack-of-all-trades, spent four long years occupying the White House after more than a decade as a reality TV host. On Thursday he faced [1]three new charges [PDF] that may complicate his plan to re-establish residency in America's capital come January 2025.

The charges include: attempting to destroy evidence (obstruction of justice); attempting to induce others to destroy evidence; and a further [2]Espionage Act violation related to the unlawful retention of a top secret document about Iran.

[3]

Indicted last month by US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, the six-time-bankrupt real estate mogul initially faced [4]37 counts related to inappropriate document retention and false statements. His valet Waltine Nauta also was charged with six counts, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding a document, concealing a document, and scheming to conceal.

[5]

[6]

Both men have pleaded not guilty.

In the [7]superseding indictment [PDF] just filed in a Florida federal court, US government prosecutors claim that the frequent golfer – who reportedly plays with an impressive handicap of [8]just 2.5 – asked for the deletion of surveillance video depicting a time period when boxes of classified documents are alleged to have been moved to conceal them from investigators.

[9]

The Florida man, Nauta, and newly charged Carlos De Oliveira, manager of the magnate's private Mar-a-Lago resort, are alleged to have asked that an employee, [10]the resort's IT director , "delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury."

[11]Florida man insists he didn't violate the law by keeping Top Secret docs

[12]Florida Man sues Facebook, Twitter, YouTube for account ban

[13]Florida man accused of breaking Mastodon's open-source license with botched social network launch

[14]Ex-FBI employee jailed for taking classified material home

This deletion scheme is said to have started in the days following June 22, 2022, when the US Department of Justice sent a draft grand jury subpoena for the surveillance video to the high-profile defendant's attorney.

On Monday, June 27, 2022, De Oliveira, according to the superseding indictment, privately met the IT director and said "that 'the boss' wanted the server deleted." The IT director responded that he did not know how to do so and did not believe he would have the rights to do so. He supposedly told De Oliveira to consult the security supervisor for the mogul's business organization.

By some extraordinary coincidence, a few months later in October 2022, [15]according to CNN , a Mar-a-Lago employee drained the resort's swimming pool and somehow flooded "a room where computer servers containing surveillance video logs were kept."

Let this be a lesson about the need for a sound disaster recovery plan. ®

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[1] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653.86.0.pdf

[2] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/793#e

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cso&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZMSO5ajwH@vj9SQDbkPd9QAAAc4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/14/florida_man_data/

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cso&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZMSO5ajwH@vj9SQDbkPd9QAAAc4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cso&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZMSO5ajwH@vj9SQDbkPd9QAAAc4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652.85.0_4.pdf

[8] https://www.sbnation.com/golf/2023/7/15/23796059/donald-trumps-hilarious-wedge-shank-leaves-fans-trolling-former-commander-in-chief

[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/cso&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZMSO5ajwH@vj9SQDbkPd9QAAAc4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[10] https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/28/politics/yuscil-taveras-trump-employee-4-indictment/index.html

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/14/florida_man_data/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/07/florida_man_sues_social_media/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/23/software_freedom_conservancy_mastodon/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/26/infosec_in_brief/

[15] https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/05/politics/mar-a-lago-pool-flood-suspicions-prosecutors-trump-investigation-classified-documents/index.html

[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



This is not a joke. This is not a drill. This is the messiah for a whole bunch of idiots.

elDog

Not to sound apocalyptic about this stuff or anything.

I know you brits had your fling with BoJo but I think he's winged his way into oblivion (other than various lordships, etc.)

The US colonies still have a solid remnant suffering from partial genetic brain damage and will vote for a trump or bojo or their dead heros like Strom Thurmond or Mitch McConnell (is he dead?)

The pustule-faced trump seems to be able to milk his low-lying partisans for every $5 they have. One would hope that they couldn't pay for necessities like toilet paper if they didn't have those $5. No worries - there's shrubberies outside.

You sure are preoccupied by Trump and Musk!

Anonymous Coward

I don't recall such hand-wringing when Hillary Clinton "Bleach-Bit'ed" the email server kept in her kitchen to prevent it from being examined. Did you sound off as loudly when her husband got "serviced" in the Oval Office?

It's a shame the IT world is dominated by socialists who howl every time a conservative (anywhere in the world) does something they don't agree with. By all means, tell us how wonderful the doddering old fool in office now is doing. What an amazing example of leadership and wit he displays, guiding us toward the future. The one where we're subservient to China. With his cocaine-fueled moronic son shaking down countries for millions - including 10 percent "for the big guy."

Whatever. They'll lob charges at Trump to keep him from running for office. What none of you seem to realize is that he is much more powerful as an influencer than as a candidate. The candidate that gets his backing wins the election. Biden has no chance of winning anything but a room in a care home.

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.