Lawyers defending Donald Trump in the government’s classified document case against the former president have weighed in with some of their severest criticism to date of the special counsel’s office, asserting that prosecutors are violating Trump’s rights in a bid to win a conviction before next year’s election.
Throughout the summer, both sides have dueled via court motions over access and inspection of classified documents that Trump allegedly mishandled and retained illegally after he left the White House in 2021.
In a filing Wednesday with the court of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who has scheduled a trial for May 20, 2024, attorneys Todd Blanche and Neil Bove of New York and Christopher Kise of Florida argued special counsel Jack Smith is maneuvering to bottle up the defense by scheduling “back-to-back” trials: The documents case in Fort Pierce and the election interference case in Washington, D.C.
The filing came the same day that Trump, who is seeking re-election as president, conducted a campaign rally in West Palm Beach before 4,000 supporters.
The defense lawyers have repeatedly sought to delay the trials until after the election, saying the cases are too complex to try in such a short period of time and that President Joe Biden is using the Justice Department to derail his would-be opponent in 2024.
“The fact that they continue to contend that it is appropriate and not a violation of President Trump’s due process rights to push forward with back-to-back multi-month trials in different districts with wholly different facts — over a defendant’s objection — reveals a central truth about these cases,” the defense lawyers wrote. “The special counsel’s office is engaged in a reckless effort to try to obtain a conviction of President Trump prior to the 2024 election, no matter the cost.”
“The Court should not permit the use of the criminal justice process toward that end,” the lawyers added.
The lawyers repeated their earlier assertions that the government has not followed through on its obligations to make all the classified documents accessible and available for inspection by the defense. The special counsel’s prosecutors dispute that assertion, saying they have made secure facilities available to review the materials.
Hearings over potential conflicts
The defense filing also came before the two sides were scheduled to square off in Cannon’s court Thursday afternoon to discuss the possibilities of attorney-client conflicts that could impact the cases against co-defendants Waltine Nauta, Trump’s personal aide, and Carlos DeOlivera, the property manager at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
Both men were charged alongside Trump with obstructing government efforts to recover classified documents hoarded at Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s Florida estate.
Smith’s team had asked for the so-called “Garcia hearings,” which are designed to ensure defendants know their rights when there is a potential for a conflict of interest when sharing the services of the same lawyers.
Although the two men are not represented by the same lawyers, their attorneys either previously represented or now represent others in the case who could become government witnesses at trial.
Smith, the special counsel, has said in two separate motions that Stanley Woodward Jr., a Washington lawyer who represents Nauta, and John Irving, another Washington attorney who represents DeOliveira, each represents three individuals the prosecutors intend to call at trial.
At Thursday’s hearing, Cannon scolded federal prosecutors as she abruptly postponed Nauta’s hearing. “I admonish the government for wasting the court’s time,” Cannon told prosecutors, saying they had presented arguments during Thursday’s hearing that had not been properly raised in earlier court filings.
She said she would set a hearing for a later date for Nauta, the Trump valet charged with conspiring with Trump to conceal classified documents from investigators.
Woodward, Nauta’s attorney, has also represented at least seven other witnesses in the probe, prosecutors say, including a Mar-a-Lago information technology worker who the Justice Department says was asked to delete the surveillance video. That individual retracted “prior false testimony” after switching lawyers, struck a cooperation deal and provided information that incriminated Trump and helped produce a new indictment in July against the former president, Nauta and De Oliveira, prosecutors have said.
During Thursday’s hearing, prosecutor David Harbach, a member of Smith’s team, said that worker would be called as a government witness and questioned — and also cross-examined — about his change in testimony. He said that could create a conflict for Woodward, who as the worker’s former lawyer would presumably would be privy to the confidences of his one-time client.
Woodward has denied any conflict and said the prosecutors had no way of knowing what he knows or doesn’t know about what his client communicated to him.
During a hearing earlier Thursday, De Oliveira said during questioning from Cannon that he understood the concerns arising from his lawyer’s former representation of three government witnesses. Nonetheless, he wanted to keep his attorney, John Irving. Cannon ruled that he could.
Irving told the judge he did not foresee a conflict, saying there was nothing the witnesses — who are now represented by a new lawyer — could reveal that is not already known by the government or that would be problematic for De Oliveira.
De Oliveira is accused of lying to investigators when he claimed — falsely, prosecutors say — he hadn’t even seen boxes moved into Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. They say he conspired with Trump and Nauta to try to delete surveillance footage from the property to prevent it from being turned over to the grand jury. De Oliveira has pleaded not guilty.
Associated Press writersTerry Spencer and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.
