A key witness against former President Donald Trump and his two co-defendants in the Mar-a-Lago documents case recanted previous false testimony and provided new information implicating the defendants after switching lawyers, according to a new court filing by special counsel Jack Smith’s office.
Yuscil Taveras, the director of information technology at Mar-a-Lago, changed his testimony regarding efforts to delete security camera footage at Trump’s Florida club in July after changing from a lawyer paid for by Trump’s Save America PAC to a public defender, according to the filing.
The revised testimony led to last month’s superseding indictment against Trump and his two co-defendants.
Taveras decided to change lawyers after learning he was being investigated for making false statements during his previous grand jury testimony in Washington, D.C., according to Tuesday’s court filing.
“Immediately after receiving new counsel, Trump Employee 4 retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, (Carlos) De Oliveira, and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment,” the filing said.
The filing identifies Taveras as “Trump Employee 4.” NBC News previously reported that Taveras is employee No. 4.
Taveras’ now-former lawyer is Stanley Woodward. Woodward also represents Trump’s co-defendant Walt Nauta and a variety of other Trump-world figures.
Woodward declined comment Tuesday on the special counsel’s new filing. NBC News has reached out to Taveras for comment.